Historia natural de Camponotus simillimus indianus Forel, 1879 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): una hormiga domiciliaria en los Andes venezolanos | Natural history of Camponotus simillimus indianus Forel, 1879 (hymenoptera: formicidae): a house infesting ant from the venezuelan Andes

En este trabajo se mencionan algunos aspectos relacionados con la historia natural de Camponotus simillimus indianus (Forel, 1879) según observaciones realizadas en la localidad de Loma de Los Guamos del estado Mérida, en los Andes venezolanos. Se incluyen algunos comentarios taxonómicos acerca de la especie dentro del complejo picipes a partir de la revisión de especímenes depositados en museos y colecciones entomológicas. De acuerdo con observaciones de campo y laboratorio, C. simillimus indianus exhibió un comportamiento subordinado ante especies agresivas, con actividad principalmente nocturna fuera del nido. Se observaron nidos permanentes asociados a infraestructuras humanas, y nidos temporales asociados a áreas silvestres y domiciliares. En entrevistas hechas a los pobladores de la región se registra que el 93% de ellos reconocen a la especie como wachaco o bachaco negro y el 76% la considera una plaga domiciliaria (n = 43). Se discute cómo el carácter estable y temporal de los nidos sugiere la presencia de nidos parentales y satélites en C. simillimus indianus, siendo las colonias satélites las que prevalecen en el domicilio humano. Como aporte a su historia natural, se devela que C. simillimus indianus puede anidar en el hábitat humano y por lo tanto ser considerada como plaga en las regiones rurales de los Andes venezolanos. Palabras clave: Áreas rurales, Camponotini, complejo picipes, hormigas plaga, nidos satélites, Neotrópico, selva nublada, perturbación antrópica. ABSTRACT Some aspects related with the natural history of Camponotus simillimus indianus (Forel, 1879) are mentioned in this work based on observations from the village Loma de Los Guamos in Mérida State, in the Venezuelan Andes. Some taxonomic remarks about the species within the picipes complex are included based on specimens deposited in museums and entomological collections. According with field and laboratory observations, C. simillimus indianus shows subordinate behavior in presence of aggressive species and nocturnal foraging activity. Permanent nests associated with human infrastructures, and temporal nests associate to sylvatic and domiciliary areas were recorded. Surveys of villagers indicate that 93% of the residents recognize this species as “wachaco or bachaco negro”, and 76% of them consider it a house pest (n = 43). Since permanent and temporary nests were observed, we propose the presence of parental and satellite nests in C. simillimus indianus, being the satellite colonies the prevailing agents in the human domicile. Based on its natural history, C. simillimus indianus is able to nest in the human habit and so can be proposed as a house pest in the rural regions of the Venezuelan Andes. Key words: Rural areas, Camponotini, picipes complex, pest ants, satellite nests, Neotropics, cloudy forests, anthropic disturbance

Análisis de la relevancia y factibilidad de indicadores de calidad en las unidades de nutrición

Introducción: La evaluación de la calidad en las actividades sanitarias exige la elección de unos indicadores acordes con los resultados que queremos medir. De todos los posibles, debemos priorizar aquellos que nos permitan obtener la información más relevante sin sobrecargar el trabajo habitual de nuestras Unidades. Objetivo: Conocer la opinión de los socios de SENPE respecto a la relevancia y la viabilidad del uso de una selección de indicadores de calidad para su aplicación en nutrición clínica. Métodos: Encuesta remitida mediante correo electrónico a los socios de SENPE solicitando a los mismos su opinión sobre 12 indicadores de calidad, valorándose cada uno en cuanto a su relevancia y factibilidad de la aplicación en su medio. Resultados: Contestaron 40 encuestados de 40 centros diferentes de 12 comunidades autónomas. En general, los indicadores fueron considerados más relevantes que factibles. Los indicadores mejor puntuados fueron: “identificación en las bolsas de nutrición artificial”, “posición semi-incorporada del paciente con nutrición enteral por sonda nasogástrica” y “protocolos clínicos básicos”. Considerando los indicadores por grupos (de estructura, proceso o resultado) los mejor valorados fueron: “identificación del paciente en las bolsas de nutrición artificial” (estructura), “posición semi-incorporada” y “protocolos clínicos básicos” (proceso), y “cumplimiento del objetivo calórico” (resultado). Conclusión: Los resultados de la encuesta permiten seleccionar indicadores prioritarios para su aplicación en las Unidades de NutriciónIntroduction: The quality assessment in health activities requires the choice of indicators in line with the results we want to measure. Of all possible, we should prioritize those that allow us to obtain the most relevant information without overloading the regular work of our units. Objective: To determine the opinion of the members of SENPE regarding the relevance and feasibility of using a selection of quality indicators designed for use in clinical nutrition. Methods: E-mail survey sent to members of SENPE asking them their views on 12 quality indicators, evaluating each in terms of their relevance and feasibility of implementation in their environment. Results: 40 respondents answered from 40 centers in 12 different regions. In general, the indicators were considered more relevant than feasible. The indicators best rated were: “identification in artificial nutrition bags, “semi-recumbent position in patient with nasogastric tube feeding” and “basic clinical protocols”. Considering the type of indicator: “patient identification in the bags of artificial nutrition (structure),” a semi-incorporated “and” basic clinical protocols (process), and “fulfillment of the caloric goal” (result). Conclusion: The results of the survey can make a selection of indicators that could be considered for first-line introduction in a Nutrition Uni

The Role of Pediatricians in Providing Greater-Quality Care for Children: An Ongoing Debate

Child healthcare frequently is regarded as a secondary objective in the development of public health policies and not as a central issue. Cost-containment policies instead of quality of healthcare frequently have inspired strategic decisions in public health investments for pediatric structures and workforce. The negative implications of this decisional approach have been shown by the substantial unpreparedness of virtually all European health systems during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic,5 particularly in the area of primary care. The debate on the negative effects of cost-containment policies in the area of primary care in not new. In recent years, the role of pediatricians within the several European healthcare systems was variously reformed by governments, with an eye more to the budget than to the quality of care and its structural components, including staffing adequacy, training, and consistency as well as facility environment and size.1 As a result, the number of general pediatricians in Europe has decreased during the past 20 years.Data from the World Health Organization show that the average number of general pediatricians per 100 000 population in Europe declined 30.1% from 26.5% in 1998 to 18.5% in 2013.A further reduction in the pediatric workforce was reported in 2018 by the European Paediatric Association, the Union of National European Paediatric Societies and Associations (EPA-UNEPSA). During the past 20 years, due to different factors, including socioeconomic and political reasons, several European countries decided to reform their public health systems and the responsibility of pediatric healthcare delivery was moved from pediatricians to general and family practitioners. The aim of this commentary by the Spanish Primary Care Pediatrics Association (AEPap), in collaboration with the European Confederation of Primary Care Pediatricians and EPA-UNEPSA, is to discuss data supporting the essential role played in Europe by well-trained pediatricians vs other providers in delivering quality healthcare for children

Heavy metal pollution in drinking water - a global risk for human health: A review

Water resources in the world have been profoundly influenced over the last years by human activities, whereby the world is currently facing critical water supply and drinking water quality problems. In many parts of the world heavy metal (HM) concentrations in drinking water are higher than some international guideline values. Discussing about the HM pollution in drinking water, the incorporation of them into the food chain, and their implications as a global risk for the human health, are the objectives of this review. It is known that there are million people with chronic HM poisoning which has become a worldwide public health issue, while 1.6 million children die each year from diseases for which contaminated drinking water is a leading cause. There is also evidence of HM in drinking water that are responsible for causing adverse effect on human health through food chain contamination. A global effort to offering affordable and healthy drinking water most to be launched throughout the world, while various laws and regulations to protect and improve the utilization of drinking water resources should be updated or created throughout the world, including the low income countries; otherwise, the problem of HM-polluted drinking water will be growing because demand for drinking water is still growing such as this problem will become even more pressing in the future. Finally, notwithstanding, additional researches are necessaries about the correlation between HM concentration in drinking water and human diseases, while the development of robust, cheap and sustainable technologies to improve the drinking water quality is necessary.Key words: Groundwater, aquifer, water quality, water pollution, microorganism, water supply, microbial communities, food chain, disease

Use of a personalised depression intervention in primary care to prevent anxiety: a secondary study of a cluster randomised trial

Background: In the predictD-intervention, GPs used a personalised biopsychosocial programme to prevent depression. This reduced the incidence of major depression by 21.0%, although the results were not statistically significant. Aim: To determine whether the predictD-intervention is effective at preventing anxiety in primary care patients without depression or anxiety. Design and setting: Secondary study of a cluster randomised trial with practices randomly assigned to either the predictD-intervention or usual care. This study was conducted in seven Spanish cities from October 2010 to July 2012. Method: In each city, 10 practices and two GPs per practice, as well as four to six patients every recruiting day, were randomly selected until there were 26–27 eligible patients for each GP. The endpoint was cumulative incidence of anxiety as measured by the PRIME-MD screening tool over 18 months. Results: A total of 3326 patients without depression and 140 GPs from 70 practices consented and were eligible to participate; 328 of these patients were removed because they had an anxiety syndrome at baseline. Of the 2998 valid patients, 2597 (86.6%) were evaluated at the end of the study. At 18 months, 10.4% (95% CI = 8.7% to 12.1%) of the patients in the predictD-intervention group developed anxiety compared with 13.1% (95% CI = 11.4% to 14.8%) in the usual-care group (absolute difference = −2.7% [95% CI = −5.1% to −0.3%]; P = 0.029). Conclusion: A personalised intervention delivered by GPs for the prevention of depression provided a modest but statistically significant reduction in the incidence of anxiety

Ordered gan/ingan nanorods arrays grown by molecular beam epitaxy for phosphor-free white light emission

The basics of the self-assembled growth of GaN nanorods on Si(111) are reviewed. Morphology differences and optical properties are compared to those of GaN layers grown directly on Si(111). The effects of the growth temperature on the In incorporation in self-assembled InGaN nanorods grown on Si(111) is described. In addition, the inclusion of InGaN quantum disk structures into selfassembled GaN nanorods show clear confinement effects as a function of the quantum disk thickness. In order to overcome the properties dispersion and the intrinsic inhomogeneous nature of the self-assembled growth, the selective area growth of GaN nanorods on both, c-plane and a-plane GaN on sapphire templates, is addressed, with special emphasis on optical quality and morphology differences. The analysis of the optical emission from a single InGaN quantum disk is shown for both polar and non-polar nanorod orientation

Bactericidal Effect of Photodynamic Therapy, Alone or in Combination with Mupirocin or Linezolid, on Staphylococcus aureus

Antibiotic treatments frequently fail due to the development of antibiotic resistance, underscoring the need for new treatment strategies. Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) could constitute an alternative therapy. In bacterial suspensions of Staphylococcus aureus, which is commonly implicated in cutaneous and mucosal infections, we evaluated the in vitro efficacy of aPDT, using the photosensitizing agents rose bengal (RB) or methylene blue (MB), alone or combined with the antibiotics mupirocin (MU) or linezolid (LN). RB or MB, at concentrations ranging from 0.03 to 10 μg/ml, were added to S. aureus ATCC 29213 suspensions containing >108 cells/ml, in the absence or presence of MU or LN (1 or 10 μg/ml). Suspensions were irradiated with a white metal halide (λ 420–700 nm) or light-emitting diode lamp (λ 515 and λ 625 nm), and the number of viable bacteria quantified by counting colony-forming units (CFU) on blood agar. Addition of either antibiotic had no significant effect on the number of CFU/ml. By contrast, RB-aPDT and MB-aPDT effectively inactivated S. aureus, as evidenced by a 6 log10 reduction in bacterial growth. In the presence of MU or LN, the same 6 log10 reduction was observed in response to aPDT, but was achieved using significantly lower concentrations of the photosensitizers RB or MB. In conclusion, the combination of MU or LN and RB/MB-aPDT appears to exert a synergistic bactericidal effect against S. aureus in vitro

InSAR-Based Mapping to Support Decision-Making after an Earthquake

It has long been recognized that earthquakes change the stress in the upper crust around the fault rupture and can influence the behaviour of neighbouring faults and volcanoes. Rapid estimates of these stress changes can provide the authorities managing the post-disaster situation with valuable data to identify and monitor potential threads and to update the estimates of seismic and volcanic hazard in a region. Here we propose a methodology to evaluate the potential influence of an earthquake on nearby faults and volcanoes and create easy-to-understand maps for decision-making support after large earthquakes. We apply this methodology to the Mw 7.8, 2016 Ecuador earthquake. Using Sentinel-1 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and continuous GPS data, we measure the coseismic ground deformation and estimate the distribution of slip over the fault rupture. We also build an alternative source model using the Global Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) solution. Then we use these models to evaluate changes of static stress on the surrounding faults and volcanoes and produce maps of potentially activated faults and volcanoes. We found, in general, good agreement between our maps and the seismic and volcanic events that occurred after the Pedernales earthquake. We discuss the potential and limitations of the methodology.This work is supported by the European Commission, Directorate-General Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) under the SAFETY (Sentinel for Geohazards regional monitoring and forecasting) project (ECHO/SUB/2015/718679/Prev02) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under INTERGEOSIMA (CGL2013-47412) and ACTIVESTEP (CGL2017-83931-C3), QUAKESTEP (1-P) + 3GEO(2-P) + GEOACTIVA (3-P) projects

Body composition by dual X-ray absorptiometry in Mexican schoolchildren with or without obesity

Objective: Apply dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to determine the amount of fat mass, lean mass, and bone mineral density in Mexican schoolchildren with and without obesity. Material and methods: We performed an observational, analytical, comparative, cross-sectional study of 80 Mexican schoolchildren who attended the Nutrition Clinic of the Pediatric Medical Center in Monterrey, Mexico during the period of January to April 2005. Body mass index (BMI) was determined to classify the participants according to the growth charts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two groups of 40 children each (with and without obesity) were formed and DXA was carried out on each individual. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to determine instrument reliability and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to test the normality of numerical variables. Means were compared using Student´s t test. Results: Statistically signiicant differences were found in fat mass (p≤0.001) and lean mass (p≤0.001), but not in bone mineral content (p=0.051) between both groups. Conclusions: Differences exist in fat mass and lean mass in both groups, but not in bone mineral content between both groups. A signiicant positive correlation was found between fat mass, determined by DXA, and BMI in schoolchildren with and without obesit