Resultados de un programa para reducir el miedo y aumentar la autoeficacia para hablar en público en estudiantes universitarios de primer año

Se expone el resultado de un programa para reducir el temor a hablar en público e incrementar la autoeficacia entre estudiantes de Magisterio. La muestra está compuesta por 158 personas del grupo experimental y 101 del grupo control. Los resultados evaluados a través del Cuestionario de Autoeficacia para Hablar en Público muestran que los participantes en el programa mejoran su autoeficacia, sobre todo aquellos con puntuaciones más bajas, y que estos resultados se mantienen a lo largo del tiempo. Se concluye que la intervención ha sido eficaz y ha dotado a los alumnos de más recursos para aprovecharse de los factores que el contexto académico ofrece para desarrollar la competencia para hablar en público

Cutaneous collagenous vasculopathy: papular form

Cutaneous collagenous vasculopathy is a rare clinicopathological entity, first described in 2000. Cutaneous collagenous vasculopathy has been considered a form of microangiopathy of superficial dermal vessels and produce lesions that appear as telangiectasia. We present a patient with histopathologic features of cutaneous collagenous vasculopathy and scattered erythematous papules on the trunk with a striking dermatoscopic finding. We propose the term of 'cutaneous papular collagenous vasculopathy' as a new clinical manifestation of this disease

uma apreciação crítica epidemiológica global

RESUMO - Com tanto ruído informativo e peças de informação incompletas e descontextualizadas, relativos ao controlo da tuberculose em Portugal, a chegarem ao cidadão e aos profissionais de saúde, não é fácil que eles disponham do conhecimento necessário ao desempenho dos respectivos papéis nesse controlo. O presente artigo pretende contribuir para um ganho real em conhecimento quanto (1) ao progresso no controlo da tuberculose em Portugal, enquadrado na evolução desse controlo noutras regiões pertinentes, e (2) aos aspectos do conhecimento disponível e da intervenção na população portuguesa que suscitem especial atenção, para melhoria no futuro imediato. Tem como estratégia integrar, e elevar ao nível de conhecimento, a informação disponibilizada nas fontes mais credíveis e pertinentes, valorizada no contexto da validade das mesmas fontes e da coerência dos diversos componentes. Relata o resultado de um exercício independente de apreciação crítica, com uma perspectiva epidemiológica. São observados: a situação actual, sobretudo a relativa aos anos de 2006 e 2007, e o desempenho do Programa Nacional de Controlo da Tuberculose (PNT), ambos relativizados à evolução recente e ao panorama internacional. O exercício de observação e revisão independentes baseia-se numa selecção de informação oficial e segue o mesmo método de abordagem que a O.M.S. faz nos seus relatórios anuais, à semelhança de outros exercícios já antes realizados. O controlo da tuberculose tem prosseguido a sua tímida, mas firme, evolução favorável, aproximando-se do nível já conseguido nos países seus vizinhos da Europa Ocidental. Em 2007, Portugal contribuiu para os 9 milhões de casos novos anuais, estimados no mundo, com 2916 casos notificados. A este número corresponde a taxa de incidência notificada de 25,7 por 100 000 habitantes e uma redução de 14% em relação ao ano anterior. Esta evolução afigura-se animadora, ainda que seja desejável um impacte mais acentuado do PNT, conforme é de esperar considerando o grau de desenvolvimento do País. A taxa de detecção de casos novos estimada é elevada e continua uma das melhores da Europa Ocidental — o que desfavorece artificialmente a imagem notificada do País, relativamente aos países com pior capacidade de detecção. A taxa de sucesso terapêutico melhorou de novo, situando- -se acima da meta de 85% preconizada pela O.M.S, para um bom controlo da tuberculose. Uma das consequências importantes é que se consegue um melhor aproveitamento da detecção habitualmente alcançada. O conhecimento no seu conjunto aponta para que o grau de controlo possa e deva realmente ser melhorado, sendo imperiosa a discriminação positiva das áreas geográficas e dos grupos populacionais em que tende a concentrar-se a emergência de maior número de casos e de resistências aos medicamentos. Deverão assim ser reforçados selectivamente tanto os meios de detecção e de intervenção clínica, como a qualidade da organização local da intervenção, para o cumprimento efectivo da estratégia DOTS. Enquanto programa vertical que atravessa os diversos níveis do sistema de cuidados de saúde, o desempenho do PNT sofre os efeitos das atribulações desses serviços, sobretudo os de cuidados primários, funcionando como uma «situação-marcadora» quanto ao desempenho do sistema de saúde. A evidência é de que é nesta primeira linha de cuidados que se decide o sucesso na detecção e no tratamento dos casos de tuberculose, reflectindo-se também aí o grau de desenvolvimento social e os comportamentos das populações, por sua vez determinantes do risco de doença e do sucesso terapêutico. -------------------ABSTRACT - It is not easy that both the citizen and health professionals get enabled with the required knowledge, in order do play the corresponding roles in the control of tuberculosis, considering all the information noise and incomplete, out of context information pieces about the subject, that reach them. This paper is envisaging to contribute for a real gain in knowledge, regarding: (1) the progress in tuberculosis control in Portugal, framed by the evolution of such control in other pertinent regions and (2) the available knowledge and intervention aspects in the Portuguese population that require a special attention, for improvement. The article’s strategy is to integrate, and raise to a knowledge level, information provided by the most accredited and pertinent sources, interpreted as a function of the validity context of the same sources and of the coherence of the several components. Two aspects are observed: the current situation, in particular concerning years 2006 and 2007, and the performance of the National Programme for the Tuberculosis Control (PNT), both made relative to the recent evolution and to the international panorama. This independent observation and revision exercise is based on a selection of official information and follows the same approach that the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) uses in its annual reports, like other similar exercises previously undertaken. The control of tuberculosis is evolving in a shy, but firm, fashion, getting closer to the level already attained by the neighbor countries, in Western Europe. Portugal has contributed with 2916 new notified cases, to the 9 million annual cases estimated in the world, in 2007. This number corresponds to an incidence rate, for notified cases, of 25.7 per 100000 population, and to a reduction of 14% in one year. Such evolution seems encouraging, although a greater impact of PNT is desirable, as expected in relation to the degree of the Country development. Estimated new cases detection rate is high and keeps being one of the best in Western Europe — and this artificially disadvantages the notified image of the Country, as compared with other countries having a worst detection capacity. Treatment success rate has improved again and it is above the 85% target proposed by W.H.O., so that a good control of the disease is achieved. One of the important consequences is a better use of the attained detection. Altogether, knowledge suggests that the degree of control can and must be in fact better; and that a positive discrimination of geographic areas and population groups, in which a greater number of new cases and drug resistances tend to concentrate, is mandatory. Therefore, either clinical detection and intervention resources, or the quality of the local intervention organization have to be reinforced, if a total fulfillment of DOTS strategy is to be obtained. As a vertical programme that crosses the several levels of the health care system, PNT performance suffers the effects of services tribulations, mainly primary care, thus acting as a «markersituation » as to this system performance. Evidence shows that it is in this first line of care that success in both detection and treatment of tuberculosis cases is decided; and that this level also reveals the degree of social development and populations’ behaviors, which play in turn a role as risk determinant for both getting the disease and succeeding in treatment.publishersversionpublishe

The Acoustics of Aggregation Sites: Listening to the Rock Art Landscape of Cuevas de la Araña (Spain)

Since the 1980s, research into aggregation sites has focused on the material dimension of the archaeological record and has thus led to an incomplete view of the prehistoric reality. Early communities chose sites for many reasons. In this article, we explore the possibility that something as immaterial in nature as the acoustics of the sites may have influenced the selective choices made by the prehistoric peoples who created and used rock art in these meeting places. Employing the Impulse Response (IR) methodology, we systematically analyze the acoustic properties of Cuevas de la Araña, an aggregation site in eastern Spain with Levantine rock art, and 16 satellite sites in its surroundings. The results indicate that the acoustics of La Araña could have been important for creating affective engagement through musical performances carried out during the production and use of rock art, as well as for the choice of the site as a meeting place for Levantine populations.This study forms part of the ERC Advanced Grant Artsoundscapes project “The sound of special places: exploring rock art soundscapes and the sacred” (EC Grant Agreement 787842), whose PI is Margarita Díaz-Andreu

Estudio de las destrezas expresivas de comunicación oral relevantes para el desempeño profesional: Implicaciones sobre el currículo comunicativo

Se presenta esta tesis doctoral titulada: Estudio de las destrezas expresivas de comunicación oral relevantes para el desempeño profesional. Implicaciones sobre el currículo comunicativo. El objetivo perseguido es conocer el punto de vista de las organizaciones de trabajo acerca del nivel de competencia de comunicación oral con que acceden los empleados a las mismas, identificar las habilidades y destrezas más relevantes para el empleo, detectar las carencias y necesidades de formación y, finalmente, valorar las orientaciones precisas para mejorar el currículo de manera que se aproxime a las necesidades reales de los ciudadanos, las organizaciones y la sociedad, siempre en el marco de la formación integral de la persona. Para alcanzar la meta ha sido necesario, por una parte, analizar los fundamentos teóricos más relevantes y estables sobre la comunicación y el discurso; el lenguaje oral; las competencias y, particularmente, la competencia comunicativa; las características de sociedad actual y el empleo, así como las características del alumnado: la inteligencia y el aprendizaje; y las actuales orientaciones legislativas y científicas que orientan la didáctica de la competencia de comunicación oral. En segundo término, se ha realizado el imprescindible trabajo de campo para conocer la realidad, consistente en encuestar mediante un detallado cuestionario, validado por jueces y mediante encuesta piloto, a ciento cincuenta responsables de la dirección de personal y recursos humanos de Aragón, de organizaciones públicas y privadas, que han colaborado de forma generosa y eficaz. Los resultados han puesto de manifiesto que el nivel de competencia de comunicación oral con que los empleados acceden al empleo no es el más adecuado y que la formación que reciben en el sistema educativo no se ajusta a las necesidades de la realidad. Por ello, es preciso mejorar el currículo de las diversas etapas educativas y abrir líneas de investigación que permitan desarrollar un modelo didáctico riguroso y coherente, así como generar recursos didácticos. Ambos aspectos son esenciales para facilitar la tarea del profesorado. La información teórica y el trabajo de campo han mostrado algunas posibles líneas de actuación que necesariamente habrán de ampliarse y perfeccionarse en el futuro

Robustness of cooperation to movement patterns in a hunter-fisher-gatherer model

Most societies often face social dilemmas in which there can be contradictions between individual interests versus those of the community as a whole. Hunter-fisher-gatherer societies can be considered as paradigmatic examples of these phenomena. The fact that many of these societies tend to live permanently disaggregated produces a specific need for maintaining the social tissue as well as for reproducing social and economic knowledge and values that depend on individual behaviour. Therefore, aggregation events are of special relevance as they represent the optimal occasion to deal with specific social aspects that in these cases need extraordinary circumstances to be held. Our case of study is focused on cooperative processes developed by historical hunterfisher- gatherer-societies from the Beagle channel (Tierra del Fuego), that developed their existence mainly through an economy focused on the exploitation of coastal and maritime resources. Yamana households moved across the territory in their canoes in search for needed resources. In spite of this, Yamana society has different ways to strength social cohesion: visiting each other or because of the celebration of different types of ceremonies. Initiation ceremonies were of special relevance, and the need for maintaining the group meanwhile these rituals were being developed became essential. The finding of a beached whale, and the subsequent aggregation event that took place through a public call, created the ideal context for the development of economic and social processes in a cooperative way

Social cooperation and resource management dynamics among late hunter-fisher-gatherer societies in Tierra del Fuego (South America)

This paper presents the theoretical basis and first results of an agent-based model (ABM) computer simulation that is being developed to explore cooperation in hunter–gatherer societies. Specifically, we focus here on Yamana, a hunter-fisher-gatherer society that inhabited the islands of the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina–Chile). Ethnographical and archaeological evidence suggests the existence of sporadic aggregation events, triggered by a public call through smoke signals of an extraordinary confluence of resources under unforeseeable circumstances in time and space (a beached whale or an exceptional accumulation of fish after a low tide, for example). During these aggregation events, the different social units involved used to develop and improve production, distribution and consumption processes in a collective way. This paper attempts to analyse the social dynamics that explain cooperative behaviour and resource-sharing during aggregation events using an agent-based model of indirect reciprocity. In brief, agents make their decisions based on the success of the public strategies of other agents. Fitness depends on the resource captured and the social capital exchanged in aggregation events, modified by the agent’s reputation. Our computational results identify the relative importance of resources with respect to social benefits and the ease in detecting—and hence punishing—a defector as key factors to promote and sustain cooperative behaviour among populationSpanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (projects CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 SimulPast-CSD2010-00034 and HAR2009-06996) as well as from the Argentine Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (project PIP-0706) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (project GR7846)

Urticarial lesions in a pregnant woman

No abstract available</p

Integrated analysis of mismatch repair system in malignant astrocytomas

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.-- et al.Malignant astrocytomas are the most aggressive primary brain tumors with a poor prognosis despite optimal treatment. Dysfunction of mismatch repair (MMR) system accelerates the accumulation of mutations throughout the genome causing uncontrolled cell growth. The aim of this study was to characterize the MMR system defects that could be involved in malignant astrocytoma pathogenesis. We analyzed protein expression and promoter methylation of MLH1, MSH2 and MSH6 as well as microsatellite instability (MSI) and MMR gene mutations in a set of 96 low- and high-grade astrocytomas. Forty-one astrocytomas failed to express at least one MMR protein. Loss of MSH2 expression was more frequent in low-grade astrocytomas. Loss of MLH1 expression was associated with MLH1 promoter hypermethylation and MLH1 -93G>A promoter polymorphism. However, MSI was not related with MMR protein expression and only 5% of tumors were MSI-High. Furthermore, the incidence of tumors carrying germline mutations in MMR genes was low and only one glioblastoma was associated with Lynch syndrome. Interestingly, survival analysis identified that tumors lacking MSH6 expression presented longer overall survival in high-grade astrocytoma patients treated only with radiotherapy while MSH6 expression did not modify the prognosis of those patients treated with both radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Our findings suggest that MMR system alterations are a frequent event in malignant astrocytomas and might help to define a subgroup of patients with different outcome.This work was supported by Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS PI 10/00219), Instituto de Estudios de Ciencias de la Salud de Castilla y León IECSCYL and Junta de Castilla y León y Fondo Social Europeo (Orden EDU/330/2008).Peer Reviewe