About Academics, Pandemic, Confinement, and Work Logs: Experiences of Some University Students in the Context of COVID-19

Históricamente las mujeres han llevado sobre sus hombros el peso de los cuidados, esto ha implacado una sobrecarga de las tareas del hogar y la falta de división equitativa de las mismas se ha acrecentado por la pandemia del COVID-19. En el contexto universitario la capacidad de la investigación para visibilizar y analizar todos los problemas sociales, no se revierte, necesariamente, para analizar los contextos de sus trabajadoras, dejando en segundo plano el poder conocer las condiciones de vida propias de quienes pertenecen a esta casa de “privilegios sociales”. ¿Qué pueden decir algunas mujeres universitarias sobre esta experiencia de confinamiento y la sobrecarga familiar y laboral?Historically, women have carried the burden on their shoulders of looking after their families, this has implicated an overload of household chores and their lack of equitable division has increased by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the university context, the research to make visible and analyze all social problems is not necessarily reversed to analyze the contexts of its female workers, ignoring the living conditions of those who belong to this entity of "social privileges". What can some university women say about this experience of confinement and family and work overload?UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Sociales::Facultad de Ciencias Sociales::Escuela de Antropologí

Delito y sobrevivencia: las mujeres que ingresan a la cárcel El Buen Pastor en Costa Rica por tráfico de drogas.

En este trabajo se muestra que el delito de tráfico de drogas al que están vinculadas no menos del 64% de las mujeres privadas de libertad del país es una decisión que se toma en condiciones de escaza posibilidad de resolver las necesidades básicas de la vida cotidiana. La propuesta es leer y analizar el tráfico de drogas como una estrategia de sobrevivencia, como una actividad económica informal a la que se dedica un grupo de mujeres con un limitado acceso al trabajo ?legal?, a las oportunidades sociales, económicas y culturales para satisfacer sus necesidades y las de sus familias. Junto a ello, la comisión del delito, al ser una construcción social y cultural, acarrea una serie de significados y vivencias que implican analizarlo en el contexto en el que ocurre; en el caso de estas mujeres, los significados que se vinculan a su acto, leído como una transgresión legal y moral, implica una ruptura y una reelaboración de las tradicionales feminidades tradicionales o normativas.In this paper, I explain how drug trafficking, which accounts for more than 64% of imprisoned women in Costa Rica, is a decision that is made in a limited choice frame for making one’s living. I suggest reading and analysing drug trafficking as a surviving strategy, as an informal and underground economic activity carried out by women with limited access to the legal labour market and to other socio-economic and cultural opportunities to meet their needs and those of their families. Moreover, committing a crime or a felony, as it is a social construction, brings along a series of meanings and lived experiences that need to be addressed. In the case of these women, the meaning attached to their acts, read as a legal and moral transgression, means a fracture and re-elaboration of their traditional, hegemonic feminit

Un acercamiento cualitativo y género-sensitivo de la participación de hombres y mujeres en el desarrollo científico y tecnológico en la Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica

El espacio de la ciencia y la tecnología ha implicado una concepción de mundo androcéntri-ca que tiene la imagen masculina como su eje de validez en cuanto a voz, participación, producción, negociación y toma de decisiones. A pesar del avance positivo en la promoción de una legislación para erradicar la discriminación de género, esas condiciones de igualdad pareciera que no afectan de forma directa los procesos de equidad. Es el caso de la participación de hombres y mujeres en espacios de la vida pública de Costa Rica y particularmente de la participación de las mujeres en el desarrollo científico tecnológico.Este trabajo trata de dar una mirada género-sensitiva a la problemática de la baja participación y producción de las mujeres en el área de la ciencia y la tecnología, a pesar de ser un alto número de ellas las que se preparan y gradúan en carreras vinculadas al área. El aporte sustancial de este trabajo se basa en una investigación realizada en la Universidad Nacional, uno de los cuatro recintos públicos de la enseñanza superior de Costa Rica.The field of science and technology entails an andro-centric conception of the world (world view). The male image is its main criteria/axis of validity regarding voice, participation, production, negotiation and decision making. Despite a positive advancement in the pro-motion of a legislation that seeks to eradicate gender discrimination, the conditions for equality seem not to affect by a direct form the processes of equality, like the processes of equal participation of men and women to different spaces of public life in Costa Rica, like in this particular case, the participation of women to the scientific technological development. This paper provides a gender-sensitive approach to the problematic of the weak participation and pro-duction of women in scientific and technological field, despite the high number of its graduates. The essential contribute of this work is based on an investigation conducted in Universidad Nacional, one of the four public pole of high education in Costa Rica.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Sociales::Facultad de Ciencias Sociales::Escuela de Antropologí

¿Limitaciones de género para el desarrollo profesional? mujeres y hombres que participan en la ciencia y la tecnología en Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica

En este artículo se presentan los resultados de una investigación sobre el quehacer académico de hombres y mujeres en la ciencia y la tecnología en la Universidad Nacional. Es una investigación de análisis cualitativo, basada en los discursos de académicos y académicas entrevistados en los años 2006 y 2007. El objetivo del proyecto fue tratar de explicar y comprender la desigual participación y producción científica entre sexos, que sostiene una relación de 35/65 a favor de los varones. Se pretende contribuir a la visibilización de las prácticas sexistas que sostienen la desigualdad entre los varones y las mujeres que trabajan en la Universidad para valorar lo hecho y lo que aún queda por hacer como paso necesario para avanzar en políticas de equidad de género en los espacios universitarios. Este artículo concluye la temática sobre elementos género sensitivos para mirar la participación de varones y mujeres en las ciencias, publicado en Temas 47.This article shows results of a research regarding the scholar work of men and women in the fields of science and technology at the Universidad Nacional. This qualitative analysis research was based on the narratives of female and male scholars interviewed in 2006 and 2007. The objective of this project was to explain and to understand the unequal participation and differences in scientific production between sexes that holds a 35/65 ratio in favor to men. This paper intends to contribute to a process of making sexist practices visible, as means to assess what has been done and what still lays ahead as a necessary step for advancing policies on gender equality at the University. This article marks an end to the series of our research project report on gender-related issues first published on Temas 47 regarding female and male participation in science.Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica/[026503]/UNA/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Sociales::Facultad de Ciencias Sociales::Escuela de Antropologí

Use of transesophageal echocardiography during implantation of aortic endoprosthesis (stent). Initial experience

OBJECTIVE: To report the role played by transesophageal echocardiography during implantation of self-expanding aortic endoprostheses (stent) at a hemodynamics laboratory. METHODS: Thirteen patients underwent stent implantation in the descending thoracic aorta with the aid of transesophageal echocardiography during the entire procedure. Indications for stenting were as follows: 8 aortic dissections, 2 true aneurysms, 2 penetrating atherosclerotic ulcers, and 1 traumatic pseudoaneurysm. RESULTS: No complications resulting from the use of transesophageal echocardiography were observed. In 12 patients, the initial result was considered appropriate, with total or partial resolution of the major lesion confirmed by a posterior examination. In 1 patient, the procedure was suspended after transesophageal echocardiography and angiography showed that the proximal aortic diameter was inappropriate. Transesophageal echocardiography contributed to clarifying relevant points, such as aortic diameter, anatomic detail of the intimal lesion, and location and size of the communicating orifice. In addition, it facilitated placing the stent in the target lesion, reduced the time of exposure to radiation and the use of contrast medium, and provided rapid identification of intercurrent events, possibly reducing the total duration of the procedure. CONCLUSION: The use of transesophageal echocardiography during placement of aortic stents seems appropriate. The actual advantages of the procedure will be defined in a comparative prospective study.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de MedicinaUNIFESP, EPMSciEL

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Mujeres con Diabetes e Hipertensión. Vivencia de la salud y autocuidado a partir de la construcción de la identidad femenina

Esta investigación, aborda la relación entre el autocuidado de las mujeres y la construcción de la identidad femenina cuando estas tienen una enfermedad crónica como diabetes o hipertensión. La idea del cuido para sí misma no forma parte de la construcción de la identidad tradicional de las mujeres, sino que está centrado en el cuido para los otros. De esta manera, la investigación aborda las experiencias de diferentes mujeres que tienen una enfermedad crónica y la forma en que ellas narran la manera en que se cuidan a sí misma y la forma en que consiguen su cuerpo y su enfermedad. Esta es una investigación etnográfica realizada en el marco de una tesis de licenciatura en Antropología Social.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Sociales::Facultad de Ciencias Sociales::Escuela de Antropologí

Mujeres, tráfico de drogas y cárcel en Costa Rica: Una etnografía interseccional

[spa] La venta de drogas a pequeña escala es el principal delito por el que ingresan las mujeres en la cárcel en Costa Rica. A pesar de que las mujeres corresponden sólo a un 5% del total de la población penitenciaria del país, casi el 60% ingresa por una falta a la Ley No. 8204 sobre estupefacientes. Este es un fenómeno que está vinculado tanto con las políticas internacionales de penalización, como a los contextos socioeconómicos, políticos y culturales en el ámbito local. En un país como Costa Rica el impacto más importante del tráfico de drogas no está relacionado con el consumo, sino con el encarcelamiento por el comercio de pequeñas cantidades de drogas ilegales. Es sobre esta consecuencia que trata la investigación. La vinculación a esta dinámica ilegal se ha convertido en una economía de sobrevivencia y como parte de otras actividades, muchas del mismo calibre informal, de las que algunas personas echan mano para salir adelante en su vida cotidiana. El trabajo de campo que da sustento a esta investigación y su análisis interseccional, pone en evidencia que la vinculación de un reducido grupo de mujeres al comercio de pequeñas cantidades de drogas, se enmarca en una estrategia para resolver la inmediatez, al igual que muchas otras que han ideado a lo largo de su propia historia social, cultural y laboral. Estas historias, a pesar de que recogen estrategias para intentar superar situaciones iniciales de desigualdad, han tenido un contexto socioestructural específico, que ha decantado en otras dinámicas de exclusión económica e invisibilidad social.[eng] Small-scale drug dealing is the main charge women are accused of and imprisoned for in Costa Rica. Despite the fact that women make up just 5% of the incarcerated population in the country, more than 55% of these women are imprisoned under Law No. 8204, the Narcotic Drugs Act. This is a phenomenon that is linked to both international political criminalisation, and local socioeconomic, political and cultural contexts. In a country like Costa Rica the most significant impact of drug trafficking is not related to consumption, but rather to the incarceration of people linked to the management of small quantities of illegal drugs. This research is precisely about this direct consequence. People’s involvement in the sale or trafficking of small amounts of drugs, has become a survival economy and a part of other activities, many informal as well, which they draw upon to get by in their daily lives. The field work that supports this research and intersectional analysis shows that the involvement of a group of women, a very small group in the end, in small-scale trafficking of illegal drugs, has been one economic strategy to address their immediate problems, like many others they have developed in their own social, cultural and labor histories. Despite their personal efforts to get ahead, these stories exist in a social and political context, which have led to economic exclusion and social invisibility

Delito y sobrevivencia: las mujeres que ingresan a la cárcel El Buen Pastor en Costa Rica por tráfico de drogas

En este trabajo se muestra que el delito de tráfico de drogas al que están vinculadas no menos del 64% de las mujeres privadas de libertad del país es una decisión que se toma en condiciones de escaza posibilidad de resolver las necesidades básicas de la vida cotidiana. La propuesta es leer y analizar el tráfico de drogas como una estrategia de sobrevivencia, como una actividad económica informal a la que se dedica un grupo de mujeres con un limitado acceso al trabajo ?legal?, a las oportunidades sociales, económicas y culturales para satisfacer sus necesidades y las de sus familias. Junto a ello, la comisión del delito, al ser una construcción social y cultural, acarrea una serie de significados y vivencias que implican analizarlo en el contexto en el que ocurre; en el caso de estas mujeres, los significados que se vinculan a su acto, leído como una transgresión legal y moral, implica una ruptura y una reelaboración de las tradicionales feminidades tradicionales o normativas