1,678 research outputs found

    Diseño de un manual de estadística para la sección de análisis de información de la unidad de investigación de personas desaparecidas

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    This theory, research and proposal work is addressed to design and build a technical and practical guide-lines, that can be used in the Analysis of Information Department of Investigation of Missing People Unit, using variables obtained from the complaints lodged or the documents prepared by the police personnel taking procedure in the raised facts which in its description include data regarding the characteristics and details of the event, establishes the processes through which allow to obtain variable that can be matched, using computer software, managing to extract accurate statistical results and precise data as to the details of the causes and characteristics of the phenomenon, being able to disperse them, according to the different geographic sectors of the country and the conditions under these events arise; information that can be expressed in documents created for its specific usefulness in decentralized units of the preventive security service, through the governing bodies of the relevant institution, immediate action would be taken, in order to improve the system of prevention and thus achieve to avoid the occurrence of the phenomenon. At the same time the statistical system would generate information that enable to establish actions to be developed in a public policy that supports to make changes to the system when the problem is presented, in stage of proceedings that allow to prevent the happening of the events that lead to the phenomenon.El presente trabajo de teoría, investigación y propuesta, está orientado a diseñar y construir un manual, técnico y práctico, que pueda ser utilizado en la Sección de Análisis de Información de la Unidad de Investigación de Personas Desaparecidas, que establezca los procesos necesarios mediante los cuales, utilizando las variables obtenidas de las denuncias presentadas y/o los documentos elaborados por el recurso humano que toma procedimiento en los hechos suscitados, que en su descripción incluyen los datos en relación a las características y detalles del suceso, permitan obtener variables que puedan ser cotejadas, mediante el uso de programas informáticos, logrando extraer resultados estadísticos exactos y datos precisos en cuanto a los pormenores de las causas y características del fenómeno, pudiéndose disgregar éstos, de acuerdo a los diferentes sectores geográficos del país y en las condiciones en las que se suscitan los eventos; información que puede ser plasmada en documentos creados para su concreta utilidad en las diferentes unidades descentralizadas del servicio preventivo de seguridad, mediante los órganos rectores de la institución correspondiente, en donde se tomarían acciones inmediatas, con el fin de mejorar el sistema de prevención y así lograr evitar la ocurrencia del fenómeno. A su vez el sistema estadístico generaría información que permita establecer acciones a ser desarrolladas en una política pública que admita realizar cambios en el sistema que presente la problemática, en instancias que permitan prevenir la sucesión de los hechos que conllevan al fenómeno

    Metodología para el apoyo de generación de dominios para representar conocimiento

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    Los sistemas inteligentes siempre han sido motivo de culto considerando desde películas, avances científicos y tendencias tecnológicas. Construir este tipo de aplicaciones es sumamente complejo porque se requieren elementos como: bases de conocimiento, mecanismos de inferencia para la toma de decisiones, generación de acciones y respuestas por parte de los agentes inteligentes. El insumo principal para el funcionamiento del agente es contar con una base de conocimiento lo suficientemente amplia, que esté sustentada en el dominio del cual se quiere trabajar, del conocimiento de expertos, esto implica que los ingenieros de conocimiento deben ser capaces de extraer cada elemento del dominio, sus relaciones y sus estructuras, para generar cuestionamientos y respuestas eficientes que no sean descartados por los humanos como acciones incorrectas o poco creíbles del agente. En este trabajo se presenta una metodología de apoyo a los estudiantes de la materia de ingeniería del conocimiento a construir sus dominios a partir de un ejemplo al alcance de sus manos como es la elaboración de platillos. Se consideró para el diseño de esta metodología la empatía considerando los momentos que vive la sociedad ante la pandemia, generar una experiencia significativa que sea difícil de olvidar, que sea lo suficientemente asociativa para establecer un proceso cognitivo de manera que ellos sean capaces de desarrollar una representación de conocimiento fuera del contexto escolar. Los resultados de esta metodología aportan información importante sobre los procesos de aprendizaje de los estudiantes, así como el proceso de retroalimentación que tuvieron entre los equipos de trabajo para poder generar estrategias para la identificación de términos del dominio muy diversas y efectivas de acuerdo con un modelo situacional generado a partir de la experiencia que han tenido en otras materias con distintas herramientas y técnicas para obtener información

    Is the meaning of subjective well-being similar in Latin American countries? A cross-cultural measurement invariance study of the WHO-5 well-being index during the COVID-19 pandemic

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    "Background: There is an urgent need to assess changes in well-being on a multinational scale during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus culturally valid scales must be available. Methods: With this in mind, this study examined the invariance of the WHO well-being index (WHO-5) among a sample of 5183 people from 12 Latin Americans countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay). Results: The results of the present study indicate that the WHO-5 is strictly invariant across samples from different Latin American countries. Furthermore, the results of the IRT analysis indicate that all items of the WHO-5 were highly discriminative and that the difficulty required to respond to each of the five items is ascending. Additionally, the results indicated the presence of moderate and small size differences in subjective well-being among most countries. Conclusion: The WHO-5 is useful for assessing subjective well-being in 12 Latin American countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, since the differences between scores can be attributed to differences in well-being and not in other characteristics of the scale.

    Colon capsule endoscopy versus CT colonography in FIT-positive colorectal cancer screening subjects: a prospective randomised trial-the VICOCA study

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    Background: Colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) and CT colonography (CTC) are minimally invasive techniques for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Our objective is to compare CCE and CTC for the identification of patients with colorectal neoplasia among participants in a CRC screening programme with positive faecal immunochemical test (FIT). Primary outcome was to compare the performance of CCE and CTC in detecting patients with neoplastic lesions. Methods: The VICOCA study is a prospective, single-centre, randomised trial conducted from March 2014 to May 2016; 662 individuals were invited and 349 were randomised to CCE or CTC before colonoscopy. Endoscopists were blinded to the results of CCE and CTC. Results: Three hundred forty-nine individuals were included: 173 in the CCE group and 176 in the CTC group. Two hundred ninety individuals agreed to participate: 147 in the CCE group and 143 in the CTC group. In the intention-toscreen analysis, sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values for the identification of individuals with colorectal neoplasia were 98.1%, 76.6%, 93.7% and 92.0% in the CCE group and 64.9%, 95.7%, 96.8% and 57.7% in the CTC group. In terms of detecting significant neoplastic lesions, the sensitivity of CCE and CTC was 96.1% and 79.3%, respectively. Detection rate for advanced colorectal neoplasm was higher in the CCE group than in the CTC group (100% and 93.1%, respectively; RR = 1.07; p = 0.08). Both CCE and CTC identified all patients with cancer. CCE detected more patients with any lesion than CTC (98.6% and 81.0%, respectively; RR = 1.22; p = 0.002). Conclusion: Although both techniques seem to be similar in detecting patients with advanced colorectal neoplasms, CCE is more sensitive for the detection of any neoplastic lesion

    Experimental infection of Artibeus lituratus bats and no detection of Zika virus in neotropical bats from French Guiana, Peru, and Costa Rica suggests a limited role of bats in Zika transmission

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    Author summaryIn previous works in 2008-2009, we found the presence of antibodies against flaviviruses, and viral RNA was detected in Neotropical chiropterans in Mexico, which led us to support the hypothesis that these animals could be reservoirs of flaviviruses. As controversial opinions have been exposed and based on a previous (2019) experimental ZIKV infection experiment conducted at Colorado State University using adult Artibeus males from a captive colony, in this work, we also experimentally infected adult Artibeus males complementarily adding females and using wild-caught animals instead of laboratory bats. We also monitored a diverse range of natural bat populations in Latin America for the presence of viral RNA against ZIKV in blood. A plaque reduction seroneutralization test was used for the detection of antibodies against ZIKV. Similar to the previous work, we found histopathological alterations in male testicles but also in the ovaries and oviducts of females, as well as gliosis and multifocal necrosis in pyramidal neurons and Purkinge cells of inoculated animals. Only two urine samples from inoculated animals showed viral RNA. Additionally, leukopenia and lymphoid follicular splenic hyperplasia were evidenced. In contrast to what was reported, no neutralizing antibodies against ZIKV were detected in any sample. Viral RNA within the blood was not present in any of the 2056 bat samples collected in French Guiana, Peru and Costa Rica and proceeding from 34 bat genera. These results together suggest that bats are not efficient amplifiers or reservoirs of ZIKV and might not have an important role in ZIKV transmission dynamics. Bats are important natural reservoir hosts of a diverse range of viruses that can be transmitted to humans and have been suggested to play an important role in the Zika virus (ZIKV) transmission cycle. However, the exact role of these animals as reservoirs for flaviviruses is still controversial. To further expand our understanding of the role of bats in the ZIKV transmission cycle in Latin America, we carried out an experimental infection in wild-caught Artibeus lituratus bats and sampled several free-living neotropical bats across three countries of the region. Experimental ZIKV infection was performed in wild-caught adult bats (4 females and 5 males). The most relevant findings were hemorrhages in the bladder, stomach and patagium. Significant histological findings included inflammatory infiltrate consisting of a predominance of neutrophils and lymphocytes, in addition to degeneration in the reproductive tract of males and females. This suggests that bat reproduction might be at some level affected by ZIKV. Leukopenia was also observed in some inoculated animals. Hemorrhages, genital alterations, and leukopenia are suggested to be caused by ZIKV; however, since these were wild-caught bats, we cannot exclude other agents. Detection of ZIKV by qPCR was observed at low concentrations in only two urine samples in two inoculated animals. All other animals and tissues tested were negative. Finally, no virus-neutralizing antibodies were found in any animal. To determine ZIKV infection in nature, the blood of a total of 2056 bats was sampled for ZIKV detection by qPCR. Most of the sampled individuals belonged to the genus Pteronotus sp. (23%), followed by the species Carollia sp. (17%), Anoura sp. (14%), and Molossus sp. (13.7%). No sample of any tested species was positive for ZIKV by qPCR. These results together suggest that bats are not efficient amplifiers or reservoirs of ZIKV and may not have an important role in ZIKV transmission dynamics

    Cross-cultural validation of the new version of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale in twelve Latin American countries

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    The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) was recently developed to assess dysfunctional anxiety related to COVID-19. Although different studies reported that the CAS is psychometrically sound, it is unclear whether it is invariant across countries. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the measurement invariance of the CAS in twelve Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay). A total of 5196 people participated, with a mean age of 34.06 (SD = 26.54). Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the measurement invariance of the CAS across countries and gender. Additionally, the graded response model (GRM) was used to provide a global representation of the representativeness of the scale with respect to the COVID19 dysfunctional anxiety construct. The unidimensional structure of the five-item CAS was not confirmed in all countries. Therefore, it was suggested that a four-item model of the CAS (CAS-4) provides a better fit across the twelve countries and reliable scores. Multigroup CFA showed that the CAS-4 exhibits scalar invariance across all twelve countries and all genders. In addition, the CAS-4 items are more informative at average and high levels of COVID-19 dysfunctional anxiety than at lower levels. According to the results, the CAS-4 is an instrument with strong cross-cultural validity and is suitable for cross-cultural comparisons of COVID-19 dysfunctional anxiety symptoms in the general population of the twelve Latin American countries evaluated

    Neuroaxial anesthesia caused paraplegia: a case report

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    Patients who undergo; anesthesia, neuraxial analgesia, or some type of neuraxial blockage are exposed to multiple complications. 33-year-old male patient, suffers a femur fracture with a long oblique trace causing pain and functional limitation for movements. Surgical resolution is determined using neuraxial block at L2-L3 level, and intravenous sedation. During his postoperative follow-up, a decrease in strength was confirmed in the lower limbs with 0/5 on the Daniels scale, 100% sensitivity without sphincter control, steroids were prescribed along with magnetic resonance imaging and a neurosurgical evaluation was requested. The MRI shows bulging of the fibrous annulus that obliterates the epidural fat and makes contact with the thecal sac in the L5-S1 intervertebral disc level. The neurosurgery service prescribes rehabilitation sessions at home, electrostimulation and neuropathic medications. Patient was discharged with rehabilitation sessions at home and medical treatment. In his last consultation, an evaluation from the psychiatry department was requested for ideas of disability, hopelessness, fantasies of death without a suicide plan related to limitations and loss of functionality. Patient does not return to external follow-up, cannot be located

    COVID-19 anxiety, psychological well-being and preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean: relationships and explanatory model

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    This study assesses the relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and subjective well-being in terms of the mediating role of COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Additionally, the contribution of sociodemographic factors (sex and age) and risk perception on COVID-19 anxiety and its potential measurement invariance was tested in 5655 participants from 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. A mixture of both latent and observable variables were analyzed using a system of structural equations. The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), Preventive COVID-19 Infection Behaviors Scale (PCIBS) and single-item measures were used to assess the perceived probability of death, perceived severity and concern about transmitting COVID-19. The results indicated that there is a significant and relevant direct effect of COVID-19 anxiety on participants' well-being. Furthermore, COVID-19 anxiety significantly predicted both preventive behavior (β =.29, p <.01) and well-being (β = –.32, p <.01). The effects of COVID anxiety and preventive behavior explained 9.8% of the variance in well-being (R-square =.098); whereas, 8.4% of the variance in preventive behavior was associated with COVID anxiety (R-square =.084). Likewise, perceived likelihood of death from COVID, perceived severity of COVID, and concerns about COVID transmission were positively related to anxiety. Age was negatively related to anxiety, with men being less anxious than women. The results are invariant by country, i.e., the broad relationships found in the combined sample are also present in each individual country. The findings indicate that, although the exact relationships between variables may vary between countries, there are enough similarities to provide useful information about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in each of the countries included in the study

    Chronic venous insufficiency: a review

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    Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) comprises a complete spectrum of morphological and functional abnormalities of the venous system1 including any long-term functional and morphological alteration. CVI accounts for several abnormalities of the venous system. It is a highly prevalent disease that causes serious economic consequences, a decrease in the quality of life and can lead to serious complications. An exhaustive review was performed with the available literature, using the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Cochrane databases from 2004 to 2021. The search criteria were formulated to identify reports related to chronic venous insufficiency. The pathophysiology of chronic venous insufficiency begins with chronic venous hypertension and the dilation of the vessel, this leads to a series of pathological changes in the venous wall and surrounding tissues, in advanced stages of CVI, skin lesions are associated with an increased proliferation of skin capillaries and microcirculatory abnormalities that may be the result of an altered level of factors responsible for the angiogenic response, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and angiostatin. In this review, updates on pathophysiology, clinic, diagnosis, classification and treatment of this disease are analyzed, with special emphasis on therapeutic options. Chronic venous insufficiency is a disease that affects the patient at several levels, mainly diminishing his/her quality of life. Currently there are various treatments ranging from habit modifications, pharmacological, to endovenous and surgical treatment.
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