More than Knots and Cords

More than Knots and Cords is an exhibition supported by this thesis paper, that explores the possible friction that could generate incorporating a traditional artisanal material, which is made following ancestral production techniques and has a historical past, into an industrialized environment in a contemporary installation. This possible friction could be caused by the fact that materials and the environment where they will be installed come from different cultures and represent different spaces and times: past and present, traditional and contemporary. This could extend to even how materials are made, craft or art. Through autoethnographic research, the materiality of Peruvian alpaca fibre and the history of ancient Peruvian textiles, this thesis explores alternative views of the past to confront the official history told from a western perspective. The distorted facts in which the official history is based create confusion in the search of an identity and a better understanding of a society. Through literature review on recent theoretical frameworks like new materialism, active matter, and systems view of life, a convergence is found with traditional views of the world like the Andean cosmovision, a confluence in the way they perceive materiality, sustainability, and ethical respect of the environment. This is seen as a convergence between old and new, traditional and contemporary. The concept of knot is introduced, which could represent tension or conflict, pact or agreement. In the exploration described above, some knots are untied, while new knots are created in an ongoing process. The exhibition presents the khipu, a pre-Hispanic artifact made of knots and cords, as a symbol of resistance, a metaphor for the decolonizing effort. The exhibition also includes an educational component to explain the Andean cosmovision to the broad public and to show labour during the creation process, which includes experimentation with some pre-Hispanic techniques rescued by archeologists

Pollination in the Rainforest: Scarce Visitors and Low Effective Pollinators Limit the Fruiting Success of Tropical Orchids

The ability to distinguish between mere flower visitors and effective pollinators is of crucial importance to understand pollination ecology. Inefficient and scarce pollinators, coupled with unsuitable abiotic conditions, might explain a failure in plant reproductive success. Here, we quantified the levels of fruit set and tested the dependency on pollinators in 10 orchid species occurring in the tropical rainforest. We show that all species were pollinator-dependent with pollination limitation occurring in all the 20 studied populations. In fact, in 87% of our observation period no visitor was seen on the flowers studied. Floral visitors included flies, butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds although only a small number were performing effective pollinations. We conclude that although these orchid species were visited by different groups of visitors, few could be considered as legitimate pollinators, explaining why these tropical orchids present low values of fruit set.A single plant might be visited by many flower visitors but not all might act as pollinators. Legitimate pollinators might also differ considerably in their efficiency, limiting pollination success. Unsuitable climatic conditions such as rain also affect pollinator activity. However, in the evergreen rainforest there is no prolonged dry season and flowering occurs usually under rain. Here, we explore the dependence on pollinators and the efficiency of flower visitors for the fruiting success of 10 Andean rainforest orchids. All species were self-compatible but strictly pollinator-dependent. Overall, we found low levels of fruit set in control flowers while experimental geitonogamous and crosspollinations increased fruit set, revealing extensive pollination limitation in all populations. Seed viability dropped considerably after self and geitonogamous pollinations suggesting the possibility of early-acting inbreeding depression. Even though we monitored flower visitors on an extensive survey, few visitors were seen in these species and even fewer acted as legitimate pollinators. Thus, even though orchid pollination might be extremely diversified, these results show that few visitors are pollinating these species, explaining the low levels of fruit set recorded in the area studied.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effect of an intervention based on child-care centers to reduce risk behaviors for obesity in preschool children

AbstractBackgroundPreschool age is a critical stage for health promotion and prevention of obesity, which is an emerging public health problem in children. The aim of this study was to design and evaluate the effect of a multifaceted intervention based on child-care centers to reduce risk behaviors for obesity among preschool children.MethodsA 12-month cluster-randomized community trial was conducted in 16 Mexican Institute of Social Security child-care centers in Mexico City. Children between 2 and 4 years of age enrolled in the selected child-care centers participated in the study. Intervention comprised 12 weekly curriculum sessions for the children, and six family workshops. Changes in children’s dietary and physical activity, food availability at home, and maternal feeding styles were determined after 6 and 12 months. Changes within groups among stages, and between groups by stage were analyzed through X2 test.ResultsThe intervention showed a decrease of home availability for some non-recommended foods and an increase in physical activity in the intervention group compared to the control group.ConclusionsImprovement in physical activity can be effective in the long term; innovative strategies aimed to modify family dietary risk behaviors are required

Potential drug-drug and drug-disease interactions in prescriptions for ambulatory patients over 50 years of age in family medicine clinics in Mexico City

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Mexico, inappropriate prescription of drugs with potential interactions causing serious risks to patient health has been little studied. Work in this area has focused mainly on hospitalized patients, with only specific drug combinations analyzed; moreover, the studies have not produced conclusive results. In the present study, we determined the frequency of potential drug-drug and drug-disease interactions in prescriptions for ambulatory patients over 50 years of age, who used Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) family medicine clinics. In addition, we aimed to identify the associated factors for these interactions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We collected information on general patient characteristics, medical histories, and medication (complete data). The study included 624 ambulatory patients over 50 years of age, with non-malignant pain syndrome, who made ambulatory visits to two IMSS family medicine clinics in Mexico City. The patients received 7-day prescriptions for non-opioid analgesics. The potential interactions were identified by using the Thompson Micromedex program. Data were analyzed using descriptive, bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The average number of prescribed drugs was 5.9 ± 2.5. About 80.0% of patients had prescriptions implying one or more potential drug-drug interactions and 3.8% of patients were prescribed drug combinations with interactions that should be avoided. Also, 64.0% of patients had prescriptions implying one or more potential drug disease interactions. The factors significantly associated with having one or more potential interactions included: taking 5 or more medicines (adjusted Odds Ratio (OR): 4.34, 95%CI: 2.76–6.83), patient age 60 years or older (adjusted OR: 1.66, 95% CI: 1.01–2.74) and suffering from cardiovascular diseases (adjusted OR: 7.26, 95% CI: 4.61–11.44).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The high frequency of prescription of drugs with potential drug interactions showed in this study suggests that it is common practice in primary care level. To lower the frequency of potential interactions it could be necessary to make a careful selection of therapeutic alternatives, and in cases without other options, patients should be continuously monitored to identify adverse events.</p

La eficiencia terminal de los alumnos de algunas licenciaturas y posgrados en ciencias

This is a work based on data from school records of students in the 2000-2008 generations of degrees in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Physics and Applied Physics, taught at Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (FCFM) of the Autonomous University of Puebla (BUAP) and a database of students in the Master Degree on Science in FCFM BUAP (Mathematics and Applied Physics) Science. Here are collected several results that are modeled and presented in some thesis in Mathematics or Applied Mathematics. Furthermore, for the Masters and Doctorates in Science FCFM BUAP, periods of 2003-2012 for the two lines in Applied Mathematics and Physics respectively are taken. The population of women involved in postgraduate studies in the first years is generally less than a half of those enrolled, and is a relative increase in recent years. In particular, all PhD students in Applied Mathematics and Physics are having a very similar time to get the degree, but in general for all postgraduate in men is lower.Finally, observing the terminal behavior of populations, although we see that women generally end up their degrees more than men, in the postgraduate we reviewed, men end in less time. From this information, we see a relative increase in the population of women in postgraduate in the areas of Mathematics and Applied Physics. The time of ending in general, women take longer though in recent years is approaching to men's time. In the case of postgraduate, we are still lack of statistical modeling jobs for insufficient data in that generations, but we mentioned descriptive evidence that allow us to raise conjectures.Este es un trabajo que se basa en datos de historiales académicos de los alumnos de las generaciones 2000-2008 de las licenciaturas de Matemáticas, Matemáticas Aplicadas, Física y Física Aplicada, que se imparten en la Facultad de Ciencias Físico Matemáticas (FCFM) de la Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) y una base de datos de los alumnos de las Maestría en Ciencias del Posgrado de la FCFM de la BUAP (Matemáticas y Física Aplicada). Aquí se recopilan varios resultados que se han modelado y presentado en algunas tesis de licenciatura en Matemáticas o Matemáticas Aplicadas. Por otro lado, para las Maestrías y Doctorados en Ciencias de la FCFM de la BUAP, se toman los periodos de 2003-2012 para las dos líneas en Matemáticas y Física Aplicada, respectivamente. La población de mujeres involucradas en los posgrados durante los primeros años es en general menos de la mitad de los inscritos, y se ve un relativo aumento en los últimos años. En particular, todos los alumnos de los Doctorado en Matemáticas y Física Aplicada están teniendo un tiempo muy similar para obtener el grado, aunque en general para todos los posgrados en los hombres es menor. Finalmente, observando la conducta terminal de las poblaciones, vemos que en las licenciaturas las mujeres en general terminan más que los hombres, aunque en los posgrados que revisamos, los hombres terminan en menos tiempo. De toda esta información, vemos un aumento relativo en la población de las mujeres en los posgrados, en las áreas de Matemáticas y Física Aplicada. El tiempo en que terminan en general, las mujeres se llevan más tiempo aunque en los últimos años se está pareciendo al de los hombres. Para el caso de los posgrados, todavía no contamos con trabajos de modelación estadística por no tener suficientes datos en las generaciones, pero sí mencionamos las evidencias descriptivas que nos permiten plantear conjeturas. 

Abordaje educomunicativo del cambio climático en el contexto de la formación escolar ecuatoriana

El binomio educación-comunicación incide en la transformación personal y social del individuo en un contexto heterogéneo y diverso. Consecuentemente la escuela debe garantizar la asimilación del conocimiento y la valoración de la cultura ambiental; además de una formación integral. Desde esta perspectiva, los medios de comunicación tendrían que ser baluartes en este proceso. Con esta visión, a partir del 2012, el Estado ecuatoriano estableció la relación: programas televisivos educativos y currículo escolar, dándose así una incipiente proyección educomunicativa. De ahí que, el objetivo general del presente artículo es identificar el abordaje educomunicativo del cambio climático en el marco de la formación escolar ecuatoriana y el programa Educa, televisión para aprender. Para ello, se ha seguido una metodología cualitativa fundamentada en el análisis bibliográfico, referido a diversas conceptualizaciones acerca de qué es, qué pretende la Educomunicación y cómo los principios que la rigen se manifiestan en los capítulos seleccionados de la serie Ladrón de cerebros. Asimismo se analizó en los documentos rectores: Actualización y Fortalecimiento de la Educación General Básica 2010 y Currículo 2016 vigente cómo se enfoca la temática del cambio climático. Además de aplicaron encuestas y entrevistas, desde las dimensiones: comunicativa y educativa. El resultado fue que la dimensión más atendida es la comunicacional. En tanto que, la dimensión educativa requiere impulsarse desde el aula con un mejor aprovechamiento del programa Educa, televisión para aprender. Finalmente se concluye que el abordaje educomunicativo del cambio climático es inconsistente

Factores socioeconómicos y desigualdad en la distribución de médicos y enfermeras en México

OBJETIVO: Describir los recursos humanos en salud y analizar la desigualdad en su distribución en México. MÉTODOS: Estudio transversal basado en la Encuesta Nacional de Ocupación y Empleo del cuarto trimestre de 2018 en México. Se consideraron como recursos humanos en salud médicos y enfermeras con licenciatura, y personal de enfermería auxiliar/técnica con estudios concluidos. Se agrupó a los estados por grado de marginación y se estimó densidades de recursos humanos en salud por 1.000 habitantes, Índices de Disimilitud e Índices de Concentración (IC) como medidas de desigualdad en la distribución. RESULTADOS: La densidad de recursos humanos en salud fue de 4,6 por 1.000 habitantes; se observó heterogeneidad entre los estados con que van 2,3 hasta 10,5 por 1.000 habitantes. La desigualdad fue mayor en los estados con muy bajo grado de marginación (IC = 0,4) que en los estados de muy alto grado (IC = 0,1), y fue mayor la desigualdad en la distribución de los médicos (IC = 0,5) que en las enfermeras profesionales (IC = 0,3) entre los estados. Para que todos los estados tuvieran una densidad igual a la nacional de 4,6, se tendrían que distribuir alrededor de 12,6% de los recursos humanos en salud entre los estados que estuvieron por debajo de la densidad nacional. Adicionalmente, 17 estados tuvieron una densidad superior al umbral de 4,5 por 1.000 habitantes propuesto en la Estrategia Global en Recursos Humanos para la Salud. Eso implica un déficit de casi 60 mil recursos humanos en salud entre los 15 estados por debajo del umbral. CONCLUSIONES: En México existe desigualdad en la distribución de recursos humanos en salud, diferenciada en los estados. Mecanismos gubernamentales a través de una política de recursos humanos podrían incentivar el equilibrio en el mercado de laboral de los médicos y enfermeras.OBJECTIVE: To describe the human resources for health and analyze the inequality in its distribution in Mexico. METHODS: Cross-sectional study based on the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE in Spanish) for the fourth quarter of 2018 in Mexico. Graduated physicians and nurses, and auxiliary/technician nurses with completed studies were considered as human resources for health. States were grouped by degree of marginalization. Densities of human resources for health per 1,000 inhabitants, Index of Dissimilarity (DI) and Concentration Indices (CI) were estimated as measures of unequal distribution. RESULTS: The density of human resources for health was 4.6 per 1,000 inhabitants. We found heterogeneity among states with densities from 2.3 to 10.5 per 1,000 inhabitants. Inequality was higher in the states with a very low degree of marginalization (CI = 0.4) than those with high marginalization (CI = 0.1), and the inequality in the distribution of physicians (CI = 0.5) was greater than in graduated nurses (CI = 0.3) among states. In addition, 17 states showed a density above the threshold of 4.5 per 1,000 inhabitants proposed in the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health. That implies a deficit of nearly 60,000 human resources for health among the 15 states below the threshold. For all states, to reach a density equal to the national density of 4.6, about 12.6% of human health resources would have to be distributed among states that were below national density. CONCLUSIONS: In Mexico, there is inequality in the distribution of human resources for health, with state differences. Government mechanisms could support the balance in the labor market of physicians and nurses through a human resources polic

Simulación de los niveles máximos de ozono en la ciudad de Puebla por medio del método kernel

En este artículo se presenta una propuesta para reemplazar los datos faltantes de una base de datos, basado en la simulación de una variable aleatoria teórica que tendría los niveles máximos de ozono en la ciudad de Puebla de la República Mexicana, ciudad con problemas ambientales y deficiencia en el monitoreo de la calidad del aire. La metodología planteada está basada en el método kernel, que se utiliza para la aproximación de una función de densidad a partir de una muestra independiente. Se presenta una propuesta de algoritmo para el reemplazo de datos faltantes, así como una prueba que valida su utilidad y por último su aplicación a los datos de niveles de ozono de la estación de monitoreo automática Agua Santa ubicada en la ciudad de Puebla

Agronomic biofortification with selenium improves the yield and nutraceutical quality in tomato under soilless conditions

Selenium (Se) is an essential element for humans. Its consumption comes from food of animal or vegetal origin; whose content varies widely depending on its availability in soil or anthropogenic sources. Biofortification improves food nutritional quality, and its consumption has a positive influence in human health. Thus, the objective of this research was to assess agricultural biofortification with Se in tomato fruit and its effects on yield, nutraceutical quality, and antioxidant capacity.&nbsp; Five Se doses (0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 mg L-1) in the form of sodium selenite (Na2SeO3) were added in a nutritional solution in a hydroponic system.&nbsp; The results obtained indicated that agricultural biofortification with Se applied in the nutritional solution improved yield, nutraceutical quality, and Se concentration in tomato fruit. The optimum Se dose that maximized yield and nutraceutical quality, as well as the recommended consumption concentration in tomato fruit in this study was 2 mg L-1 (Na2SeO4) because higher doses decreased yield and bioactive compound biosynthesis. Incorporating Se in the nutritional solution is an alternative to increase phytochemical compound biosynthesis in tomato fruit and yield with the possibility of improving public health with its consumption

Autopercepción del estado de salud: una aproximación al los ancianos en México

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate health status of the elderly in Mexico through their self-perception and to describe social, organizational and health-related factors. METHODS: A study was carried out on secondary data from the 2000 National Health Survey in Mexico. Multiple logistic regression models were used. The dependent variable health status was measured through self-perception. The independent variables included were: sociodemographic characteristics, risk behaviors, accidents, disease diagnosis and clinical measures. RESULTS: A total of 7,322 adults aged 60 years and older were studied, which represents 7% of the total population in that age group in Mexico. Of them, 19.8% reported poor or very poor health status. Factors found to be associated to poor health were age, female sex, having no social security, being divorced, homemaker, disabled, unemployed, tobacco consumption, having a health condition, accidents and diagnosed with chronic diseases. CONCLUSIONS: The study allowed to identifying factors that may contribute to poor health status in the elderly. These findings could be taken into account in the development of actions and health care programs for this population in Mexico.OBJETIVO: Evaluar el estado de salud de los ancianos mexicanos a través de la autopercepción y analizar los factores sociales, de salud y organizacionales asociados. MÉTODOS: Estudio de datos secundarios de la Encuesta Nacional de Salud 2000 en México. Se realizó análisis de regresión logística múltiple. La variable dependiente fue el estado de salud medido a través de la autopercepción de salud. Las variables independientes seleccionadas fueron: características sociodemográficas, hábitos de riesgo, accidentes, diagnóstico de enfermedades y mediciones clínicas. RESULTADOS: Se analizó a 7,322 adultos de 60 años y mayores, que representan al total de la población (7%) en ese grupo de edad en México. De estos, 19.8% reportó estado de salud como malo o muy malo. Los factores asociados a mala salud fueron edad, sexo femenino, no tener seguro social, ser divorciado, dedicarse al hogar, estar incapacitado, no tener trabajo, consumo de tabaco, problema de salud, accidentes y diagnóstico de enfermedades crónicas. CONCLUSIONES: El análisis de factores asociados permitió determinar elementos que influyen en mal estado de salud de ancianos. Los hallazgos podrían considerarse en la formulación de acciones y programas de atención para esa población en México