El perfil de clima escolar: estudio transcultural de la validez de una batería de cuestionarios para evaluar el clima escolar

This paper studies the validity of the School Climate Battery of Questionnaires for Secondary and High School Teachers (SCBQSHST). The battery includes five questionnaires: Quality of Leadership, Quality of Teachers' Support, School Motivational Orientation, Quality of Students' Attitude, and Quality of Parental Support. A total of 178 teachers from Costa Rica were compared with 343 Spanish teachers. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the questionnaires allow assessing teachers' perceptions of the different dimensions of school climate in a valid and reliable way in both Spain and Costa Rica. Differences in the perception of Spanish and Costa Rican teachers about school climate shown by multigroup confirmatory factor analyses are discussed as well as theoretical and practical implications.Este artículo estudia la validez de la Batería de cuestionarios sobre clima escolar para profesores de Secundaria y Bachillerato (BQCE-SB). La batería incluye cinco cuestionarios: calidad de liderazgo, calidad de apoyo docente, orientación motivacional del centro, calidad de las actitudes de los estudiantes y calidad del apoyo de los padres. Un total de 178 docentes de Costa Rica se compararon con 343 docentes españoles. Los análisis factoriales confirmatorios mostraron que los cuestionarios permiten evaluar de manera válida y confiable las percepciones de los docentes sobre las diferentes dimensiones del clima escolar, tanto en España como en Costa Rica. Se discuten las diferencias en la percepción de los docentes españoles y costarricenses sobre el clima escolar que muestran los análisis factoriales confirmatorios multigrupo, así como sus implicaciones teóricas y práctica

Plinian Core: The long and winding road

Plinian Core (PliC) is a set of vocabulary terms that can be used to describe different aspects of biological species information. Under "biological species information" all kinds of properties or traits related to taxa—biological and non-biological—are included. Thus, for instance, terms pertaining to descriptions, legal aspects, conservation, management, demographics, nomenclature, or related resources are incorporated. Plinian Core started as a collaborative project between Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio, Costa Rica) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Spain (GBIF Spain) in 2005. In successive years, the National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO, Mexico), the National Network of Open Biodiversity Data (SiB Colombia)/the Humboldt Institute (Colombia), the University of Granada (Spain) and the University of São Paulo (USP, Brazil) were also involved. In 2012. PliC aligned with the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) and an umbrella Interest Group was created (Species Information IG, Pando 2017b) with developments carried out by its corresponding TDWG Task Group (Plinian Core Task Group 2020b)

Antimicrobial activity of sodium carboxylates against arcobacter sp. y campylobacter Sp.

Arcobacter and Campylobacter genres are pathogenic microorganisms associated with gastrointestinal diseases and their main transmission route is through food and water. Both genres have been strongly associated to poultry, these animals have been signed as reservoirs and contamination sources. Due to this characteristic, industries associated to poultry production had to establish control measures for these bacteria, being hygiene and disinfection one of the most important ones at processing plant level. The use of chemical agents for the control of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms is one of the most used strategies in food industry, nevertheless, the inadequate use of these substances and the transmission of resistance genes between strains has motivated an increase in the appearance of resistant microorganisms. This has led to the search of new chemical agents that accomplish with the characteristics requested by food industry, including to be non-toxic for consumers, food compatible and active at concentrations similar to routinely used. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of eight different sodium carboxylates against different Arcobacter and Campylobacter strains. Growth of these bacteria was determined at different concentrations of the salts. For Arcobacter, the inhibitory effect of the corresponding sodium salts was as follows: butanoate >gallate – 4-bromobenzoate - decanoate>benzoate>octanoate>caffeate> ascorbate; whereas for Campylobacter was: gallate – 4-bromobenzoate >decanoate – octanoate – butanoate – benzoate >caffeate> ascorbate. Sodium gallate and sodium 4-bromobenzoate were the two salts that presented inhibitory effect at lower concentrations for both bacteria (MIC = 31 µg/mL), butanoate presented a MIC ever lower but only against Arcobacter strains (< 8µg/mL).Universidad de Costa Rica/803-B7-119/UCR/Costa Rica Fundación UCR/217//Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Salud::Facultad de MicrobiologíaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales (CIET)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Básicas::Facultad de Ciencias::Escuela de Químic

Snake Venomics of the Lesser Antillean Pit Vipers Bothrops caribbaeus and Bothrops lanceolatus: Correlation with Toxicological Activities and Immunoreactivity of a Heterologous Antivenom

The venom proteomes of the snakes Bothrops caribbaeus and Bothrops lanceolatus, endemic to the Lesser Antillean islands of Saint Lucia and Martinique, respectively, were characterized by reversephase HPLC fractionation, followed by analysis of each chromatographic fraction by SDS-PAGE, N-terminal sequencing, MALDI-TOF mass fingerprinting, and collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry of tryptic peptides. The venoms contain proteins belonging to seven (B. caribbaeus) and five (B. lanceolatus) types of toxins. B. caribbaeus and B. lanceolatus venoms contain phospholipases A2, serine proteinases, L-amino acid oxidases and zinc-dependent metalloproteinases, whereas a long disintegrin, DC-fragments and a CRISP molecule were present only in the venom of B. caribbaeus, and a C-type lectin-like molecule was characterized in the venom of B. lanceolatus. Compositional differences between venoms among closely related species from different geographic regions may be due to evolutionary environmental pressure acting on isolated populations. The venoms of these two species differed in the composition and the relative abundance of their component toxins, but they exhibited similar toxicological and enzymatic profiles in mice, characterized by lethal, hemorrhagic, edemaforming, phospholipase A2 and proteolytic activities. The venoms of B. caribbaeus and B. lanceolatus are devoid of coagulant and defibrinogenating effects and induce only mild local myotoxicity in mice. The characteristic thrombotic effect described in human envenomings by these species was not reproduced in the mouse model. The toxicological profile observed is consistent with the abundance of metalloproteinases, PLA2s and serine proteinases in the venoms. A polyvalent (Crotalinae) antivenom produced in Costa Rica was able to immunodeplete ∼80% of the proteins from both B. caribbaeus and B. lanceolatus venoms, and was effective in neutralizing the lethal, hemorrhagic, phospholipase A2 and proteolytic activities of these venomsUniversidad de Costa Rica/[741-A8-521]/UCR/Costa RicaMinisterio de Educación y Ciencia/[BFU2004-01432/BMC]//EspañaMinisterio de Educación y Ciencia/[BFU2007-61563]//EspañaConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas/2007CR0004/CRUSA-CSIC/EspañaPrograma Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo/206AC0281/CYTED/EspañaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Instituto Clodomiro Picado (ICP

Venomics of the poorly studied hognosed pitvipers Porthidium arcosae and Porthidium volcanicum

We report the first proteomics analyses of the venoms of two poorly studied snakes, the Manabi hognosed pitviper Porthidium arcosae endemic to the western coastal province of Manabí (Ecuador), and the Costa Rican hognosed pitviper P. volcanicum with distribution restricted to South Pacific Costa Rica and western Panamá. These venom proteomes share a conserved compositional pattern reported in four other congeneric species within the clade of South American Porthidium species, P. nasutum, P. lansbergii, P. ophryomegas, and P. porrasi. The paraspecific immunorecognition profile of antivenoms produced in Costa Rica (ICP polyvalent), Perú (Instituto Nacional de Salud) and Brazil (soro antibotrópico pentavalente, SAB, from Instituto Butantan) against the venom of P. arcosae was investigated through a third-generation antivenomics approach. The maximal venom-binding capacities of the investigated antivenoms were 97.1 mg, 21.8 mg, and 25.7 mg of P. arcosae venom proteins per gram of SAB, ICP, and INS-PERU antibody molecules, respectively, which translate into 28.4 mg, 13.1 mg, and 15.2 mg of total venom proteins bound per vial of SAB, ICP, and INS-PERU AV. The antivenomics results suggest that 21.8%, 7.8% and 6.1% of the SAB, ICP, and INS-PERU antibody molecules recognized P. arcosae venom toxins. The SAB antivenom neutralized P. arcosae venom's lethality in mice with an ED50 of 31.3 mgV/g SAB AV. This preclinical neutralization paraspecificity points to Brazilian SAB as a promising candidate for the treatment of envenomings by Ecuadorian P. arcosae.Fundação Rondônia de Amparo ao Desenvolvimento das Ações Científicas e Tecnológicas e à Pesquisa do Estado de Rondônia/[EFP-00021744]/FAPERO/BrasilMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación/[BFU2017-89103-P]//EspañaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[741-C0-071]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[ED-3248]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Instituto Clodomiro Picado (ICP)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Básicas::Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical (CIBET)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Salud::Facultad de Microbiologí

Cuentos que construyen paz

Esta propuesta se enmarca en el Proyecto Comunidades Educativas que Construyen Paz, del Instituto de Estudios Latinoamericanos (IDELA), cuyo propósito es facilitar procesos pedagógicos para la paz con comunidades educativas, por medio de una metodología lúdica y participativa, con el fin de promover la construcción de una cultura de paz en los espacios de convivencia cotidianos.Este libro es el resultado de un proceso que se fue tejiendo durante el 2021, el Festival para la Paz, el cual se realiza como una forma de contribuir a la creación y difusión de espacios participativos, lúdicos y creativos para instar a la paz desde las comunidades educativas. Esto, a modo de ir constituyendo una red con ideas novedosas que dan forma a dichos cuentos, constructores de paz. La creación y elaboración de cuentos fue una apuesta con equipos interdisciplinarios, niñas y niños de las escuelas públicas de la Regional de Heredia del Ministerio de Educación Pública de Costa Rica: Escuela Finca Guararí, Escuela Miguel Aguilar Bonilla, Escuela Rubén Darío y Escuela Santiago.This book is the result of a process that was woven during 2021, the Festival for Peace, which is carried out as a way to contribute to the creation and dissemination of participatory, playful and creative spaces to encourage peace from the educational communities. This, as a way of building a network with innovative ideas that give shape to these stories, peace builders. The creation and elaboration of stories was a bet with interdisciplinary teams, girls and boys of the public schools of the Heredia Regional of the Ministry of Public Education of Costa Rica: Finca Guararí School, Miguel Aguilar Bonilla School, Rubén Darío School and Santiago School.Instituto de Estudios Latinoamericano