Low Vaccination Rates: Africa

Vaccination is a treatment that produces immunity, protecting individuals and general populations from infectious and often deadly diseases. Low vaccination rates have for a long time been a pervasive issue in the continent of Africa. There are many extenuating circumstances that become contributory causes for low rates of populations being vaccinated. These circumstances can be in relation to the health professionals and facilities that distributes vaccinations, lack of resources in health facilities, false determiners for children’s eligibility, etc. Other contributory causes concern the general environments in which people live. These contributory causes can present barriers for accessing health services and essentially receiving vaccinations. Through the African Region: Regional Strategic Plan for Immunization 2014-2020, and African Vaccination Week, Africa is implementing interventions to promote and increase the rate of vaccination to bolster healthy African populations

Understanding sampling by Chilean secondary school students

In statistical inference, importance of sampling is recognized as one of its key concepts, which has allowed its incorporation internationally in different curricular guidelines and specifically in the Chilean curriculum, since the first notions of sampling are introduced in 7th Grade. This paper presents an analysis of the responses to an open-ended written questionnaire, designed to evaluate understanding of sampling, that was applied to a sample of 1,241 Chilean secondary students of 8th, 10th and 12th Grades in six different secondary schools. A mixed methodology was used, with qualitative description of responses and a quantitative analysis of their frequencies. The results reflect outstanding difficulties in the use of elements related to sampling and its properties in different problem situations. For example, students can distinguish the concept of sample in contexts close to their experiences; but when faced with different sampling methods, they are not able to identify biases associated to sample selection. Thus, when deciding if a sample is representative, they mostly identify cases in which the given sample is not.Project EDU2016-74848-PCONICYT Chile Scholarship (PFCHA 72160521

Seroprevalencia de toxoplamosis en pacientes embarazadas atendidas en el Hospital Berta Calderón Roque. Managua, Nicaragua 1 de Enero 2014 al 31 de Diciembre del 2015

Se determinó la relación entre los factores sociodemográficos-epidemiológicos y la seroprevalencia de toxoplasmosis en gestantes atendidas en el Hospital Bertha Calderón Roque, Managua, Nicaragua de dos años 2014 y 2015. El estudio fue descriptivo y transversal en 36 gestantes con toxotest positivo atendidas en el área de estudio, seleccionadas intencionalmente. Se aplicó una encuesta sobre datos demográficos, antecedentes obstétricos. Se obtuvieron los resultados de la Ig G e Ig M anti Toxoplasma gondii. Para el análisis estadístico se utilizó el programa estadístico IBM SPSS (versión 22; 2014) La seroprevalencia general de toxoplasmosis fue de 17,1%; en gestantes atendidas en el Hospital Bertha Calderón Roque. De los factores sociodemográfico más representativos encontrados fueron, la seropositividad en mujeres gestantes menores de 34 años de edad, asociado a la edad fértil. Más expuestas a la toxoplasmosis las amas de casa, y predominó el II trimestre de captación. Se concluye que la seroprevalencia de toxoplasmosis no fue significativa tomando en cuenta que el tamizaje se realizó solamente al 1% del universo estudiado del año 2014 al 201

Code Switching: A Tool in the Classroom

There has been a tremendous growth of the Hispanic population in the United States leading to a large population of Spanish heritage speakers in our schools. Language diversity in the United States has been maintained primarily because of continuing immigration from non-English speaking countries (Gollnick & Chinn, 2009). Many school districts have adopted several types of programs to educate this growing population. One of the major issues being faced in the classroom concerns language development of learners using code switching. “Code switching, or the alternation of two languages within a single clause, sentence or turn is a complex, rule-governed use of language which offers a unique opportunity for studying some of the more complicated aspects of bilingual speech” (Dearholt & Valdes-Fallis 1978). While some teachers believe that students should only speak in the target language, others are indifferent or flexible with regard to the language students’ use in the classroom. Many of these teachers do not know to handle the situation or haven’t received adequate training to understand this process. This research project investigated the teachers’ knowledge about code switching and how they deal with it in the classroom with the purpose to identify the need of further information about Code Switching and how to use it to their advantage in the classroom. The method used to investigate this topic consisted of a questioned survey given to teachers of Grades K-8 from Eugenio María de Hostos Charter School. The survey consisted of the following questions: What is your definition of code switching? When do students code switch? Why do you think students code switch? What are your beliefs about code switching in the classroom? From 1 to 5 what are your feelings about students code-switching in the classroom? In what subject areas do you find students code switching? In what subject areas do you find yourself code switching? Do you perceive a higher success in students’ achievements when they code switch? What professional development would you like to see about code switching? The results of this research have two implications. The first implication from this thesis project would be how educators can enhance instruction to use code switching as language enhancement. The second implication would help educators identify the content areas where students need language instruction to build the vocabulary in the target language

Effects of Music Therapy and Piano Lesson on Academic Achievement, Classroom Behaviors, and Self-Esteem of At- Risk Students: A Pilot Study

There is a need for research that explores the effects of music lesson on intellectual, behavioral, and emotional functioning of at-risk students who attend regular public school. Some students might benefit more from a direct approach utilizing therapeutic goals and interventions in music therapy while others may be more profoundly impacted by an indirect approach such as piano instruction. It is worthwhile to compare the effects of music lessons and music therapy incorporating music instruction on non-musical behaviors of at-risk students. The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of piano instruction and music therapy incorporating piano instruction on academic achievement, classroom behaviors, and self-esteem in at-risk students. Participants were 32 at-risk elementary school students (2nd, 3 rd, and 4th graders). They were randomly assigned to one of 10 weeks of 30 minute, one-to-one training conditions: music therapy incorporated piano instruction (n=11), piano instruction (n=11), and no-training (n=10). Participants’ language and math scores, Teacher’s Ratings of Classroom Behaviors (TRCB), and Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory were measured. There was no statistically significant difference between the training conditions. The present study investigated the effect of two different forms of music instruction; music therapy and piano instruction for at-risk students. With the breadth of variables to be considered and the conclusions drawn by some studies that music may indeed have a significant impact on this particular population, further research is warranted

Factor extraction using Kalman filter and smoothing: This is not just another survey

Dynamic factor models have been the main “big data” tool used by empirical macroeconomists during the last 30 years. In this context, Kalman filter and smoothing (KFS) procedures can cope with missing data, mixed frequency data, time-varying parameters, non-linearities, non-stationarity, and many other characteristics often observed in real systems of economic variables. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a comprehensive updated summary of the literature on latent common factors extracted using KFS procedures in the context of dynamic factor models, pointing out their potential limitations. Signal extraction and parameter estimation issues are separately analyzed. Identification issues are also tackled in both stationary and non-stationary models. Finally, empirical applications are surveyed in both cases. This survey is relevant to researchers and practitioners interested not only in the theory of KFS procedures for factor extraction in dynamic factor models but also in their empirical application in macroeconomics and financeFinancial support from the Spanish Government Project PID2019-108079GB-C22/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (MINECO/FEDER) is gratefully acknowledged by Pilar Poncela. Esther Ruiz and Karen Miranda acknowledge financial support from project PID2019-108079GB-C21 (MINECO/FEDER

Complicaciones de los trastornos hipertensivos durante el embarazo.

Los trastornos hipertensivos son causa importante de morbimortalidad materno infantil. Las complicaciones de los mismos se enfrentan en la práctica diaria. Bajo el término de enfermedad hipertensiva del embarazo, se engloba una extensa variedad de procesos que tienen en común la existencia de hipertensión arterial durante la gestación. Las complicaciones de los trastornos hipertensivos puede producirse hasta en una cuarta parte de todos los embarazos, y 193 mujeres mueren cada día en el mundo por dichas complicaciones. El objetivo general fue describir las complicaciones que presentan las pacientes con enfermedad hipertensiva en el embarazo. Los objetivos específicos fueron establecer la complicación más frecuente, la tasa de letalidad; establecer si existe asociación entre hipertensión arterial severa, edad materna, edad gestacional y el desarrollo de complicaciones; describir las características de las pacientes, establecer el porcentaje de pacientes requirieron traslado a área de cuidado intensivo y la relación “near miss”/muertes maternas

Valoración economica y financiera de la sustitución de cultivos de cacao nacional theobroma cacao l. por un tipo de clon de cacao denominado ccn-51. caso finca San Miguel

En Los Ríos, provincia del Ecuador ampliamente conocida por su tradición agricultora que data desde épocas de los conquistadores españoles, se encuentra ubicada la Finca San Miguel propiedad de los señores Miguel Ruiz y Elsa Wong padres de Josías Ruiz coautor de este proyecto, concebido como una propuesta para mejorar los actuales índices de productividad y ganancias de la finca en mención para lo cual se emplean los distintos elementos matemáticos y estadísticos aprendidos a lo largo de nuestra carrera universitaria. El presente trabajo se basa en la hipótesis de que el terreno no está siendo óptimamente utilizado y propone una sustitución de los actuales cultivos que posee la finca por una combinación adecuada de maíz y el clon de Cacao Nacional CCN-51 conocido en el argot popular como Cacao en Rama, se trata de un clon de origen trinitario con muy buen rendimiento y que puede producir un cacao fino muy cercano al sabor del Theobroma Cacao L. ecuatoriano conocido más comúnmente como Cacao Nacional. Hemos dividido el proyecto en cuatro capítulos, encontrando así dentro del primero una descripción de los hechos actuales que afronta la finca tales como: ubicación exacta, condiciones climáticas y del terreno, cultivos sembrados, métodos utilizados y por supuesto utilidades percibidas por los mismos dentro del periodo 2003-2007. A su vez se efectúa una rápida revisión sobre las condiciones nacionales y mundiales que rodean a dichos productos y conclusiones sobre las posibles circunstancias que podrían darse en un futuro. Por otro lado se ha dedicado un capítulo exclusivo al CCN-51 en donde se evalúa su historia, antecedentes, opiniones y comparaciones con respecto al Cacao Nacional así como una revisión sobre los procedimientos y los costos que implicaría el decidirse por sembrar este cultivo. En el tercer capítulo se incluye una evaluación similar a la descrita anteriormente, para los casos del Maíz y el Cacao Nacional siendo en el cuarto capítulo donde finalmente se procede a efectuar, en base a los costos determinados en los capítulos precedentes una proyección para 5 años, que incluye una regresión econométrica de precios, así como un análisis de sensibilidad mediante el cual se encuentra la probabilidad de que se generen pérdidas, atribuyendo así un porcentaje de riesgo a cada uno de los flujos revisados. Al final se seleccionan aquellos dos sembríos con Valor Actual Neto más alto y se procede mediante un problema de maximización a encontrar la combinación óptima recomendada para generar las utilidades más altas posibles

Modelo de programación entera para la generación de horarios para alumnos de primer semestre de la Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Over the last years, Universidad San Francisco de Quito has increased its demand. As a result, the provision of adequate schedules is more difficult each semester for new students. Consequently, this study aims to develop a tool that automatically generates the schedules needed. It also seeks to apply Operations Research for the generation of an optimization model, which allows obtaining a schedule for each student in their first semester, in which all relevant restrictions are considered according to the internal interests of the university. For this, the methodology of Lieberman and Hillier will be used to develop a mathematical model. Finally, the validation of the model performance is done by testing the accomplishment of all the restrictions within the generated schedules.La Universidad San Francisco de Quito a lo largo de los últimos años ha incrementado su demanda, en consecuencia, la disposición de horarios cómodos para alumnos de primer semestre se ha reducido. En base a esto, se decide realizar una asignación automática de horarios. El estudio busca aplicar Investigación de Operaciones para la generación de un modelo de optimización, que permita la obtención de un horario para cada estudiante de primer semestre; considerando los intereses de la universidad. Para esto, se utilizará la metodología de Lieberman y Hillier, para formular un modelo de programación entera. Finalmente, para la validación del funcionamiento del modelo se comprobó el cumplimiento de todas las restricciones dentro de los horarios generados