¿Cómo puedo proteger a mis hijos de las drogas? Una experiencia de prevención de drogas en familia

Uno de los ámbitos donde se debe realizar Prevención en Drogodependencias es en la familia porque juega un papel decisivo en la educación de los hijos, en su papel socializador y en la transmisión de valores. Es en la familia donde las intervenciones deben ir orientadas a potenciar y reforzar los factores de protección. Con ese objetivo desde el Instituto CEU de Drogas y Conductas Adictivas de la Universidad Cardenal Herrera, pusimos en marcha un Programa de Prevención Familiar en Drogodependencias dirigido a todos los padres de los centros escolares de la provincia de Valencia, que constó de 16 sesiones estructuradas en 4 módulos: Psicología Evolutiva, La Importancia de la Familia, La Adicción como Enfermedad, La comunicación en la Familia. Los resultados confirman la tendencia de otros estudios de investigación ya que muestran que existe una baja participación por parte de los padres y que los que acuden motivados a este tipo de intervenciones no muestran disfunción en la dinámica familiar. Por tanto, concluimos que es necesario realizar algunos ajustes en el programa para conseguir mayor implicación por parte de los padres. Del mismo, exponemos algunas sugerencias que se pueden poner en práctica con la intención de conseguir que se beneficien de este tipo de programas el mayor número posible de familias

APROXIMACIÓN A LAS CONCEPCIONES MILITARISTA Y ANTIMILITARISTA DEL CRISTIANISMO PRIMITIVO

La actitud de las instituciones eclesiásticas y de los primeros cristianos frente a los conflictos bélicos de su tiempo se enfrenta de forma clara con el mensaje de justicia y «paz» atribuidos a Cristo. Esta confrontación, el dualismo pacifismo-violencia, surgen de la tradición social y cultural del Imperio romano, por un lado, y del corpus ideológico de Jesús de Nazareth por otro

La familia en la prevención de las drogodependencias: situación actual de los programas y nuevos retos

La función tradicional de la familia y la transmisión de valores de padres a hijos se ha visto alterada por diferentes motivos. Es de vital importancia en el momento actual, orientar, apoyar, formar y motivar a los padres para que adopten el protagonismo necesario en la educación de sus hijos con el objetivo de reducir y evitar el uso de drogas. Para conocer cuál es la situación actual de los programas de prevención familiar, hemos hecho un repaso de los diferentes programas que existen y más concretamente nos hemos centrado en las actuaciones que se llevan a cabo en la Comunidad Valenciana. Existen diferentes dificultades a la hora de realizar los Programas de Prevención Familiar y entre ellas se encuentran la baja participación de los padres, la no existencia de programas específicos y que en la mayoría de los programas no se realizan actuaciones conjuntas con padres e hijos. Por último, partiendo de dichos resultados, concluimos que los profesionales debemos plantearnos algunos retos que pueden mejorar la efectividad de los Programas de Prevención Familiar, por ejemplo, mediante el diseño de Programas Prototipo y/o la creación de estrategias útiles para captar y motivar a los padres a participar en este tipo de programas

Relationship between the cathodoluminescence emission and resistivity in In doped CdZnTe crystals

Cadmium zinc telluride, CdZnTe, bulk single crystals doped with 1019 at./cm3 of indium in the initial melt were grown by vertical Bridgman technique. The samples were investigated by energy dispersive spectroscopy, cathodoluminiscence (CL), and current-voltage behavior at room temperature. The results shows that Cd and Te vacancy concentration depend on the indium and zinc concentrations. CL measurements indicate a relationship between radiative centers associated to Cd and Te vacancies and resistivity values

The impact of a web-based lifestyle educational program (‘Living Better’) Reintervention on hypertensive overweight or obese patients

‘Living Better’, a self-administered web-based intervention, designed to facilitate lifestyle changes, has already shown positive short-and medium-term health benefits in patients with an obesity–hypertension phenotype. The objectives of this study were: (1) to examine the long-term (3-year) evolution of a group of hypertensive overweight or obese patients who had already followed the ‘Living Better’ program; (2) to analyze the effects of completing this program a second time (reintervention) during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quasi-experimental design was used. We recruited 29 individuals from the 105 who had participated in our first study. We assessed and compared their systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), body mass index (BMI), eating behavior, and physical activity (PA) level (reported as METs-min/week), at Time 0 (first intervention follow-up), Time 1 (before the reintervention), and Time 2 (post-reintervention). Our results showed significant improvements between Time 1 and Time 2 in SBP (-4.7 (-8.7 to -0.7); p = 0.017), DBP (-3.5 (-6.2 to -0.8); p = 0.009), BMI (-0.7 (-1.0 to -0.4); p 0.24). Implementation of the ‘Living Better’ program maintained positive long-term (3-year) health benefits in patients with an obesity–hypertension phenotype. Moreover, a reintervention with this program during the COVID-19 pandemic produced significant improvements in blood pressure, BMI, eating behavior, and PA. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

EVALUACIÓN DEL VALOR NUTRICIONAL DE LA Puya llatensis EN LA ALIMENTACIÓN DEL CUY (Cavia porcellus)

Se evaluó la calidad nutricional y la digestibilidad in vivo de la Puya llatensis en la alimentación del cuy. El análisis proximal registró 87.2% de humedad, 2.3% de proteína, 0.75% de extracto etéreo, 15.43% de fibra cruda, 70.43% de extracto libre de nitrógeno, 11.07% de cenizas, 0.04% de calcio y 0.38% de fósforo en base seca. Además se determinó un contenido de 7.74mg/100mg de ácido ascórbico (Vitamina C) en base húmeda. Se realizó una prueba de digestibilidad con 10 cuyes machos de 12 semanas de edad y peso promedio de 650 g. Los coeficientes de digestibilidad aparente fueron: materia seca: 75.96%, proteína total: 28.86%, fibra cruda: 54.89%, extracto etéreo: 49.58%, extracto libre de nitrógeno: 80.56% y ceniza: 87.25%. Para la prueba de alimentación se utilizaron 25 animales machos de 30 días de edad y con peso promedio de 290 g. Los animales fueron distribuidos al azar en cinco grupos de alimentación: T1 (Control = cebada + alfalfa 100%), T2 (cebada + alfalfa 75% + Puya llatensis 25%), T3 (cebada + alfalfa 50% + Puya llatensis 50%), T4 (cebada + alfalfa 25% + Puya llatensis 75%), T5 (cebada + Puya llatensis 100%). Se evaluó la ganancia de peso, el consumo de alimentos y la conversión alimenticia en tres periodos: inicial (0-28 días), final (28-56 días) y total (0-56 días), sin encontrar diferencias significativas entre los tratamientos T1, T2 y T3 (p > 0.05). Se concluye que el uso de la Puya llatensis hasta niveles de 50% de reemplazo de la alfalfa no afecta los parámetros mencionados.The nutritional quality and digestibility in vivo of the Puya llatensis for cobayo feeding was evaluated. The chemical analysis indicated 87.2% humidity, 2.3% protein, 0.75% ether extract, 15.43% crude fiber, 70.43% nitrogen free extract, 11.07% ashes, 0.04% calcium and 0.38% phosphorus on dry base. Moreover, the content of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) was 7.74 mg in 100 mg of fresh sample. A digestibility test was conducted on 10 male cobayos of 12 weeks of age and 650 g body weight. The coefficients of digestibility were: Dry matter (75.96%), total protein (28.86%), crude fiber (54.89%), ether extract (49.58%), nitrogen free extract (80.56%), and ashes (87.25%). For the feeding trial, 25 male cobayos of 30 days of age and 290 g body weight were used. Animals were distributed at random in five groups: T1 (control) = (barley + alfalfa 100%), T2 (barley + alfalfa 75% + Puya llatensis 25%), T3 (barley + alfalfa 50% + Puya llatensis 50%), T4 (barley + alfalfa 25% + Puya llatensis 75%), T5 (barley + Puya llatensis 100%). Body gain weight, feed intake and feed conversion were evaluated at three periods: initial (0-28 d), final (28-56 d), and total (0-56 d), and no statistical differences were found between T1, T2 and T3 groups (p>0.05). It was concluded that the use of Puya llatensis till levels of 50% alfalfa replacement do not affect the productive performance of cobayos

Predictive potential of SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentration in wastewater to assess the dynamics of COVID-19 clinical outcomes and infections

Coronavirus disease 2019 -caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-, has trig-gered a worldwide pandemic resulting in 665 million infections and over 6.5 million deaths as of December 15, 2022. The development of different epidemiological tools have helped predict new outbreaks and assess the behavior of clinical variables in different health contexts. In this study, we aimed to monitor concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater as a tool to predict the progression of clinical variables during Waves 3, 5, and 6 of the pandemic in the Spanish city of Xativa from September 2020 to March 2022. We estimated SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in 195 wastewater samples using the RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel vali-dated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. We also compared the trends of several clinical variables (14-day cumulative incidence, positive cases, hospital cases and stays, critical cases and stays, primary care visits, and deaths) for each study wave against wastewater SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations using Pearson's product-moment correlations, a two-sided Mann-Whitney U test, and a cross-correlation analysis. We found strong correlations between SARS-CoV-2 concentrations with 14-day cumulative incidence and positive cases over time. Wastewater RNA concentrations showed strong correlations with these variables one and two weeks in advance. There were significant correlations with hospitalizations and critical care during Wave 3 and Wave 6; cross-correlations were stronger for hospitalization stays one week before during Wave 6. No association between vaccination percentages and wastewater viral concentrations was observed. Our findings support wastewater SARS-CoV-2 concentrations as a potential surveillance tool to anticipate infection and epidemiological data such as 14-day cumulative incidence, hospitalizations, and critical care stays. Public health authorities could use this epidemiological tool on a similar population as an aid for health care decision-making during an epidemic outbreakThis research was funded by the Valencian International University and Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) through the Grants to emerging research groups 2023 (CE2023) from the Regional Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society (CIGE/2022/58).Medicin

A novel strategy based on genomics and specific PCR reveals how a multidrug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain became prevalent in Equatorial Guinea 15 years after its emergence.

OBJECTIVE: Molecular epidemiology techniques in tuberculosis (TB) can identify high-risk strains that are actively transmitted. We aimed to implement a novel strategy to optimize the identification and control of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB in a specific population. METHODS: We developed a strain-specific PCR tailored from whole genome sequencing (WGS) data to track a specific MDR prevalent strain in Equatorial Guinea (EG-MDR). RESULTS: The PCR was applied prospectively on remnants of GeneXpert reaction mixtures owing to the lack of culture facilities in Equatorial Guinea. In 147 (93%) of 158 cases, we were able to differentiate between infection by the EG-MDR strain or by any other strain and found that 44% of all rifampicin-resistant TB cases were infected by EG-MDR. We also analysed 93 isolates obtained from Equatorial Guinea 15 years ago, before MDR-TB had become the problem it is today. We found that two of the scarce historical MDR cases were infected by EG-MDR. WGS revealed low variability-six single nucleotide polymorphisms acquired by this strain over 15 years-likely because of the lack in the country of a specific program to treat MDR-TB. CONCLUSIONS: Our novel strategy, which integrated WGS analysis and strain-specific PCRs, represents a low-cost, rapid and transferable strategy that allowed a prospective efficient survey and fast historical analysis of MDR-TB in a population