Integrative health care model for climacteric stage women: design of the intervention

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Climacteric stage women experience significant biological, psychological and social changes. With demographic changes being observed in the growing number of climacteric stage women in Mexico, it is important to improve their knowledge about the climacteric stage and its potential associated problems, encourage their participation in screening programs, and promote the acquisition of healthy lifestyles.</p> <p>At Mexican health care institutions the predominant health care model for climacteric stage women has a biomedical perspective. Medical doctors provide mostly curative services and have limited support from other health professionals. This study aims to design an integrative health care model (IHCM: bio-psycho-social, multidisciplinary and women-centered) applicable in primary care services aimed at climacteric stage women.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>We present the design, inclusion criteria and detailed description of an IHCM. The IHCM consists of collaborative and coordinated provision of services by a health team, which is involves a family doctor, nurse, psychologist, and the woman herself. The health team promotes the empowerment of women through individual and group counseling on the climacteric stage and health related self-care. The intervention lasts three months followed by a three-month follow-up period to evaluate the effectiveness of the model. The effectiveness of the model will be evaluated through the following aspects: health-related quality of life (HR-QoL), empowerment, self-efficacy and knowledge regarding the climacteric stage and health-related self-care activities, use of screening services, and improvement in lifestyles (regular leisure time physical activity and healthy diet).</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Participation in preventive activities should be encouraged among women in Mexico. Designing and evaluating the effectiveness of an integrative health care model for women at the climacteric stage, based on the empowerment approach and focus on health-related self-care to improve their HR-QoL is pertinent for current health conditions of this age group.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>The study is registered at the ClinicalTrials.gov (<a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/NCT01272115">NCT01272115</a>).</p

CONTEXTO DE LA INNOVACIÓN EN LA RURALIDAD ESPAÑOLA: EL CASO DEL ARROZAL ANDALUZ

This article presents a descriptive statistical analysis on the relationship of rice growing and the retention of the rural population on the territory in Spain. Data provided by FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), the National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) and the Statistics and Cartography Institute of Andalusia were used. Results show that technological and non-technological innovation based on sustainable production has facilitated the increase in yield of paddy rice production, avoiding processes of rural depopulation in the municipalities of study

ANÁLISIS COMPARATIVO DE CONSUMIDORES DE VERDURAS Y FRUTAS ECOLÓGICAS EN ESPAÑA Y PORTUGAL

Presently, new patterns of food consumption associated to the so-called organic foods have been detected. The spread of post-materialist values, ecological awareness, environmental conservation, as well as the recent economic crisis that has impacted most European countries have fostered the emergence of new forms of consumption of organic products based on a model of sustainable production. In this context, the production and consumption of organic vegetables and fruits proves to be a strategy for quality in food consumption and also as a way of saving in the acquisition of fresh and healthy foods. The following scientific contribution makes a comparative descriptive statistical study of the sociodemographic characteristics of the different types of consumers of organic fruits and vegetables in Spain and Portugal. A description of the pro-environment practices in this typology of consumers is also shown. We resort to a quantitative strategy through the use of data that belongs to the ISSP Environment (2010, Portugal) and ISSP (2010, Spain) surveys. The technique used is the bivariate analysis and the tree segmentation analysis through the CHAID algorithm. The main results show the influence of education, income and environment in the characterization of the different types of consumers of organic fruits and vegetables in Spain and Portugal

An overview of refrigeration and its impact on the development in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The development of refrigeration is a priority in all countries, given the multidimensional roles that it plays in the sustainable development of society. In developing countries, efforts are being made to catch up with the delayed experienced in the use of refrigeration. To achieve this goal, several countries are allowed to trace the history of refrigeration in their countries in order to understand the main causes of non-expansion, and then set up a new strategy of sustainable development for this technology. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a developing country that has experienced a very interesting history of refrigeration, but is still less known by the Congolese themselves as well as by scientists. This paper has traced out the outline in the history of refrigeration in the DRC. Surveys were conducted in the industrial, health, residential, commercial, and tourism sectors during the colonial and post-colonial period. Results showed that the use of refrigeration in the DRC has been remarkably observed in the industrial sector, especially in breweries, with a cooling capacity ranging from 50.1 thousand to 2.88 million kWh, about 5 659 % between 1929 and 1957; from 3 million to 26.5 million kWh, about 783.3 % between 1958 and 1980, and then dropped to 6.5 million kWh in 2004 before resuming its growth up to 11 million kWh in 2009. The variations in the use of refrigeration during the above periods significantly influenced the economy, in the sense that the economic and social indicators of the country grew from 0.415 to 0.430 between 1975 and 1985, and then declined to 0.375 in 2000, due to political instability, before rising up to 0.410 in 2005

An overview of refrigeration and its impact on the development in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The development of refrigeration is a priority in all countries, given the multidimensional roles that it plays in the sustainable development of society. In developing countries, efforts are being made to catch up with the delayed experienced in the use of refrigeration. To achieve this goal, several countries are allowed to trace the history of refrigeration in their countries in order to understand the main causes of non-expansion, and then set up a new strategy of sustainable development for this technology. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a developing country that has experienced a very interesting history of refrigeration, but is still less known by the Congolese themselves as well as by scientists. This paper has traced out the outline in the history of refrigeration in the DRC. Surveys were conducted in the industrial, health, residential, commercial, and tourism sectors during the colonial and post-colonial period. Results showed that the use of refrigeration in the DRC has been remarkably observed in the industrial sector, especially in breweries, with a cooling capacity ranging from 50.1 thousand to 2.88 million kWh, about 5 659 % between 1929 and 1957; from 3 million to 26.5 million kWh, about 783.3 % between 1958 and 1980, and then dropped to 6.5 million kWh in 2004 before resuming its growth up to 11 million kWh in 2009. The variations in the use of refrigeration during the above periods significantly influenced the economy, in the sense that the economic and social indicators of the country grew from 0.415 to 0.430 between 1975 and 1985, and then declined to 0.375 in 2000, due to political instability, before rising up to 0.410 in 2005

Nearby supernova host galaxies from the CALIFA Survey: II. SN environmental metallicity

The metallicity of a supernova (SN) progenitor, together with its mass, is one of the main parameters that rules their outcome. We present a metallicity study of 115 nearby SN host galaxies (0.005<z<0.03) which hosted 142 SNe using Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) from the CALIFA survey. Using O3N2 we found no statistically significant differences between the gas-phase metallicities at the locations of the three main SN types (Ia, Ib/c and II) all having ~8.50$\pm$0.02 dex. The total galaxy metallicities are also very similar and we argue that this is because our sample consists only of SNe discovered in massive galaxies (log(M/Msun)>10 dex) by targeted searches. We also found no evidence that the metallicity at the SN location differs from the average metallicity at the GCD of the SNe. By extending our SN sample with published metallicities at the SN location, we studied the metallicity distributions for all SN subtypes split into SN discovered in targeted and untargeted searches. We confirm a bias toward higher host masses and metallicities in the targeted searches. Combining data from targeted and untargeted searches we found a sequence from higher to lower local metallicity: SN Ia, Ic, and II show the highest metallicity, which is significantly higher than SN Ib, IIb, and Ic-BL. Our results support the picture of SN Ib resulting from binary progenitors and, at least part of, SN Ic being the result of single massive stars stripped of their outer layers by metallicity driven winds. We studied several proxies of the local metallicity frequently used in the literature and found that the total host metallicity allows for the estimation of the metallicity at the SN location with an accuracy better than 0.08 dex and very small bias. In addition, weak AGNs not seen in total spectra may only weakly bias (by 0.04 dex) the metallicity estimate from integrated spectra. (abridged)Comment: 24 pages, 16 Figures, 13 Tables, Accepted in A&

Scaling up cancer care for children without medical insurance in developing countries: The case of Mexico

Background: In 2006, the Mexican government launched the Fund for Protection Against Catastrophic Expenditures (FPGC) to support financially healthcare of high cost illnesses. This study aimed at answering the question whether FPGC improved coverage for cancer care and to measure survival of FPGC affiliated children with cancer. Procedure A retrospective cohort study (2006–2009) was conducted in 47 public hospitals. Information of children and adolescents with cancer was analyzed. The coverage was estimated in accordance with expected number of incident cases and those registered at FPGC. The survival was analyzed by using Kaplan–Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazards regression modeling. Results: The study included 3,821 patients. From 2006 to 2009, coverage of new cancer cases increased from 3.3% to 55.3%. Principal diagnoses were acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL, 46.4%), central nervous system (CNS) tumors (8.2%), and acute myeloid leukemia (AML, 7.4%). The survival rates at 36 months were ALL (50%), AML (30.5%), Hodgkin lymphoma (74.5%), Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (40.1%), CNS tumors (32.8%), renal tumors (58.4%), bone tumors (33.4%), retinoblastoma (59.2%), and other solid tumors (52.6%). The 3-year overall survival rates varied among the regions; children between the east and south-southeast had the higher risks (hazard ratio 3.0; 95% CI: 2.3–3.9) and 2.4; 95% CI: 2.0–2.8) of death from disease when compared with those from the central region. Conclusion: FPGC has increased coverage of cancer cases. Survival rates were different throughout the country. It is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of this policy to increase access and identify opportunities to reduce the differences in survival

Aperture effects on the oxygen abundance determinations from CALIFA data

This paper aims at providing aperture corrections for emission lines in a sample of spiral galaxies from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA) database. In particular, we explore the behavior of the log([OIII]5007/Hbeta)/([NII]6583/Halpha) (O3N2) and log[NII]6583/Halpha (N2) flux ratios since they are closely connected to different empirical calibrations of the oxygen abundances in star forming galaxies. We compute median growth curves of Halpha, Halpha/Hbeta, O3N2 and N2 up to 2.5R_50 and 1.5 disk R_eff. The growth curves simulate the effect of observing galaxies through apertures of varying radii. The median growth curve of the Halpha/Hbeta ratio monotonically decreases from the center towards larger radii, showing for small apertures a maximum value of ~10% larger than the integrated one. The median growth curve of N2 shows a similar behavior, decreasing from the center towards larger radii. No strong dependence is seen with the inclination, morphological type and stellar mass for these growth curves. Finally, the median growth curve of O3N2 increases monotonically with radius. However, at small radii it shows systematically higher values for galaxies of earlier morphological types and for high stellar mass galaxies. Applying our aperture corrections to a sample of galaxies from the SDSS survey at 0.02<=z<=0.3 shows that the average difference between fiber-based and aperture corrected oxygen abundances, for different galaxy stellar mass and redshift ranges, reaches typically to ~11%, depending on the abundance calibration used. This average difference is found to be systematically biased, though still within the typical uncertainties of oxygen abundances derived from empirical calibrations. Caution must be exercised when using observations of galaxies for small radii (e.g. below 0.5R_eff) given the high dispersion shown around the median growth curves.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Interaction of HLA Class II rs9272219 and TMPO rs17028450 (Arg690Cys) Variants Affects Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder Susceptibility in an Admixed Mexican Population

Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder (NMOSD) is a demyelinating autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, more prevalent in individuals of non-European ancestry. Few studies have analyzed genetic risk factors in NMOSD, and HLA class II gene variation has been associated NMOSD risk in various populations including Mexicans. Thymopoietin (TMPO) has not been tested as a candidate gene for NMOSD or other autoimmune disease, however, experimental evidence suggests this gene may be involved in negative selection of autoreactive T cells and autoimmunity. We thus investigated whether the missense TMPO variant rs17028450 (Arg630Cys, frequent in Latin America) is associated with NMOSD, and whether this variant shows an interaction with HLA-class II rs9272219, previously associated with NMOSD risk. A total of 119 Mexican NMOSD patients, 1208 controls and 357 Native Mexican individuals were included. The HLA rs9272219 "T" risk allele frequency ranged from 21 to 68%, while the rs17028450 "T" minor allele frequency was as high as 18% in Native Mexican groups. Both rs9272219 and rs17028450 were significantly associated with NMOSD risk under additive models (OR = 2.48; p = 8 × 10(-10) and OR = 1.59; p = 0.0075, respectively), and a significant interaction between both variants was identified with logistic regression models (p = 0.048). Individuals bearing both risk alleles had an estimated 3.9-fold increased risk of NMOSD. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting an association of TMPO gene variation with an autoimmune disorder and the interaction of specific susceptibility gene variants, that may contribute to the genetic architecture of NMOSD in admixed Latin American populations