Assessment of a doctoral thesis

RESUMEN: Dada la complejidad de los procesos de evaluación de las tesis doctorales, el Comité de Programa del doctorado de Salud Pública de la Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública de la Universidad de Antioquia, efectuó un seminario para discutir diferentes aspectos de este proceso, en el cual participaron estudiantes, directores y miembros de comités de tesis de los estudiantes del program

Salud Pública, justicia social e investigación cualitativa: hacia una investigación por principios

Resumen Este artículo corresponde a una investigación teórica cuyo objetivo fue problematizar el proceder corriente de utilizar la investigación cualitativa en salud pública justificada por el tipo de objeto (cualitativo), sustentada, por lo tanto, en una concepción dicotómica de la realidad que da pie al dualismo investigación cualitativa/cuantitativa. Parto de reconocer la existencia de diferentes referentes axiológicos que determinan la diversidad en la investigación cualitativa en la salud pública y en las concepciones de justicia social que sustentan las diferentes corrientes de la disciplina. Dado que no hacemos investigación en un vacío disciplinar, construí dos orillas teóricas de la salud pública que sustentan conjuntos de valores distintos para analizar cómo pensar la investigación cualitativa desde escenarios axiológicos diferentes. Una orilla corresponde a la salud pública clásica de origen anglosajón y la otra se ha construido con base en tres corrientes teóricas de la salud pública latinoamericana. El análisis se estructuró contrastando v33s1a18las diferencias de sentido que desde estas dos orillas se dan a la realidad, la ciencia, el objeto de investigación, la racionalidad, la sociedad y la justicia social. Dicha comparación permitió evidenciar cómo la perspectiva instrumental de la investigación cualitativa centrada en el tipo de objetos y en un universo dicotómico no tiene sentido para concepciones dialécticas y hermenéuticas sobre la realidad. Se plantea una afinidad entre algunas perspectivas de la investigación cualitativa con estas corrientes de la salud pública latinoamericana en relación con los valores ontológicos, epistemológicos, éticos y políticos que se comparten, más que por un determinado tipo de acercamiento metodológico-instrumental. Se propone una aproximación hacia la investigación basada en principios (valores), con lo cual se superan las visiones dicotómicas cuali contra cuanti. Abstract This paper is the result of a theoretical study aimed at problematizing the current procedure of using qualitative research in public health and justifying it through the type of its object (“qualitative”), thus grounding on a dichotomous conception of reality that gives rise to a dualistic qualitative/ quantitative nature of research. I start by acknowledging the existence of various axiological referents which determine the diversity in qualitative research on public health and in the conceptions of social justice underlying the different schools of thought in the discipline. Since we don't conduct research in a disciplinary vacuum, I built two theoretical “edges” of public health that support different sets of values, to discuss how to think about qualitative research in different axiological scenarios. One edge corresponds to what can be called the classic Anglo-Saxon perspective of public health and the other has been constructed by taking into account the three Latin American public health schools of thought. The analysis was structured by contrasting the differences of the meaning that these two “edges” give to reality, science, the object of research, rationality, society, and social justice. This comparison made it possible to see how the instrumental perspective of qualitative research focused on the types of objects and on a dichotomous universe has no meaning for the dialectical and hermeneutical conceptions of reality. It is argued that the similarity between some trends of qualitative research and these Latin American schools of thought of public health is due more to the congruence among related sets of values, which serve as principles, than to the type of object. In this sense, an approach to research based on principles (values) is proposed, which overcomes the “quali” vs. “quanti” dichotomous views

Educación para la crianza en un programa de atención a la niñez: lecciones para la salud pública

Investigación del proceso educativo del programa Familia, Mujer e Infancia (FAMI) del Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF) como una experiencia valiosa para el sector salud de la cual aprender sobre la educación para la crianza. Se realizó sistematización investigativa del “Proyecto pedagógico educativo comunitario en la primera infancia” del ICBF y de las prácticas pedagógicas de madres FAMI. Se recogió y analizó información en reuniones y talleres, complementada con entrevistas individuales y grupales a madres FAMI y funcionarios del ICBF. Se exponen hallazgos sobre la importancia de la educación en el programa FAMI, la propuesta pedagógica, su implementación, la enseñanza de la crianza y la forma en que se percibe la acción educativa de la madre FAMI. Se hace un análisis pedagógico del modelo educativo. Se presentan los aprendizajes que podrían aplicarse a los programas del sector salud que realizan educación sobre la crianza

Generalización e inferencia: un acercamiento a su compresión desde tres enfoques / Generalization and inference: an understanding based on three approaches

Se trata de una reflexión que busca poner en discusión los diferentes significados que pueden adquirir los conceptos de generalización e inferencia, de acuerdo con el enfoque o perspectiva desde el cual se pretendan utilizar. Para este propósito, en primer lugar, se pone en consideración la importancia y el uso que se ha dado a estos conceptos en el campo de la epidemiología clásica-moderna, especialmente para definir asuntos de validez interna y externa y para la formulación de hipótesis. Seguidamente, se presentan las principales argumentaciones que al respecto defiende Clifford Geertz desde su perspectiva epistemológica de la etnografía interpretativista y de acuerdo con su concepción teórica de la cultura. Posteriormente, se presentan las ideas que sustenta Juan Samaja desde su enfoque epistemológico y metodológico para la investigación en salud, abogando principalmente por el razonamiento abductivo, y no sólo el inductivo y el deductivo que han sido privilegiados en los estudios lógicos. Por último se presenta una discusión y unas conclusiones destacando que en estas tres perspectivas la salud pública tiene una oportunidad para enriquecer sus procesos de generación de nuevo conocimiento y para comprender de mejor manera las condiciones de salud y de bienestar colectivo This paper is a reflection which seeks to stimulate discussion and debate concerning the different meanings that the concepts of generalization and inference can take on, based on the approach or perspective that is being employed. For this purpose the importance and usage which has been accorded to these concepts within the field of classic-modern epidemiology is taken into consideration, especially in order to define internal and external validity issues and to formulate hypotheses. Next the main arguments are presented and are defended by Clifford Geertz from his epistemological perspective of interpretive ethnography and based on his theoretical conception of culture. Subsequently the ideas maintained by Juan Samaja are presented from his epistemological and methodological approach for research into health, advocating primarily for abductive reasoning, and not simply inductive and deductive, which have until now been privileged in logic studies. Finally a discussion and conclusions are presented, highlighting that from these three perspectives public health has the opportunity to expand its new knowledge generation processes and to better understand the conditions for good collective health and wellbein

Evaluation of the program “La Aventura de la Vida” from the perspective of its staff working in an elementary school, Medellín, 2002–2004: a case study

This research evaluated the program “La aventura de la vida” (Adventure of Life), a joint work between University of Antioquia and Surgir, a nongovernmental organization in charge of the program in Medellín. Participants were interviewed to understand what happens with the knowledge, perceptions and relations in the educative community where it was applied. It was possible to establish that components of the program can account for practices and interactions of their actors producing effects and impacts. The study looked for these effects and impacts in terms of social process and as transforming tool of citizen culture facing drug addition problem. Community conceptions and meanings on prevention of socially relevant problems associated to drugs and healthy life styles promotion. With a qualitative and ethnographic approach, the study allowed to understand the real development of the program, using different techniques such as comprehensive interviews, participant observations and focal groups with children and their significant peopl

Maternal exposure to high temperatures disrupts OCT4 mRNA expression of rabbit pre‐implantation embryos and endometrial tissue

We examined the effect of prolonged high heat stress on reproductive performance and its relationship with gene expression in pre‐implantation embryos and endometrial tissue. In experiment 1, primiparous rabbit does were divided into two environments: control does (maintained between 14 and 22°C) and heat‐treated does housed in a climatic chamber (maintained between 25 and 35°C). Females were reproducing, and the litter size and live born kits were assessed at 2nd and 3rd partum. In heat‐treated does, lower litter size (9.7 ± 0.48 and 11.4 ± 0.50) and fewer live born kits (7.2 ± 0.55 and 10.2 ± 0.57) were observed, although similar ovulation rates and numbers of pre‐implantation embryos were noted. In experiment 2, after 3rd partum multiparous non‐lactating does from each experimental group were used to obtain pre‐implantation embryos and endometrial tissue. mRNA transcripts from OCT‐4, VEGF, erbB3, Ifn‐ɣ, HSP70 and HSP90 were analysed by real‐time qPCR. Higher values of OCT‐4 expression were observed in embryos and endometrial tissue in females reproduced under heat conditions. Moreover, elevated temperatures have been shown to up‐regulate VEGF in embryos and down‐regulate Ifn‐ɣ in endometrial tissue. The findings suggest a deleterious temperature effect on litter size and live born kits as a consequence of variation in gene expression pattern of the pre‐implantational embryo and the endometrium associated with proliferation and differentiation and probably with implantation and uterine and foetal development during gestation.This work was supported by the Spanish Research Projects AGL2008–03274 (CICYT). Carmen Naturil was supported by Generalitat Valenciana research programme (Prometeo 2009/125). Estrella Jiménez was supported by a research grant from the Education Ministry of the Valencian Regional Government (programme VALi+d. ACIF/2010/262).Peer reviewe

Nontopological zero-bias peaks in full-shell nanowires induced by flux-tunable Andreev states

A semiconducting nanowire fully wrapped by a superconducting shell has been proposed as a platform for obtaining Majorana modes at small magnetic fields. In this study, we demonstrate that the appearance of subgap states in such structures is actually governed by the junction region in tunneling spectroscopy measurements and not the full-shell nanowire itself. Short tunneling regions never show subgap states, whereas longer junctions always do. This can be understood in terms of quantum dots forming in the junction and hosting Andreev levels in the Yu-Shiba-Rusinov regime. The intricate magnetic field dependence of the Andreev levels, through both the Zeeman and Little-Parks effects, may result in robust zero-bias peaks—features that could be easily misinterpreted as originating from Majorana zero modes but are unrelated to topological superconductivity