Risk factor assessment to anticipate performance in the National Developmental Screening Test in children from a disadvantaged area

Introducción. Detectar menores en riesgo de no pasar la Prueba Nacional de Pesquisa del Desarrollo, combinando prevalencias de sospechosos de padecer trastornos inaparentes del desarrollo (STID) y factores de riesgo (FR) asociados, permitiría ahorrar recursos. Objetivos. 1. Estimar la prevalencia de STID. 2. Identificar FR asociados. 3. Evaluar tres métodos, desarrollados a partir de los FR hallados, para proponer un procedimiento prepesquisa. Materiales y métodos. Se administró la Prueba Nacional de Pesquisa del Desarrollo a 60 menores, de entre 2 y 4 años, de un área socioeconómicamente desfavorecida de Puerto Madryn, elegidos de modo aleatorio. Se evaluaron 24 variables biológicas y socioambientales para identificar posibles FR mediante los enfoques bivariado y multivariado. La probabilidad de no pasar la pesquisa se estimó de la siguiente manera: 1. construyendo un modelo multivariado de regresión logística; 2. relacionando el número de FR presentes en cada menor con el porcentaje de quienes no pasaron la prueba; 3. integrando los métodos anteriores. Resultados. La prevalencia de STID fue 55,0% (IC 95%: 42,4%-67,6%). Mediante el enfoque bivariado, se identificaron preliminarmente seis FR. Tres de ellos, instrucción materna, número de controles en salud y puntajes Z-talla/edad, más edad materna, fueron incluidos en el modelo de regresión logística con mayor poder explicativo. El tercero de los métodos evaluados presentó las mayores sensibilidad y especificidad (85% y 79%, respectivamente). Conclusiones. La prevalencia estimada de STID fue cuatro veces superior a la del estándar nacional. Se identificaron siete FR. La integración del análisis del efecto acumulativo de los FR y un modelo multivariado proveen una sólida base para el desarrollo de un procedimiento prepesquisa sensible, específico y práctico en zonas desfavorecidas socioeconómicamente.Introduction. Identifying children at risk of failing the National Developmental Screening Test by combining prevalences of children suspected of having inapparent developmental disorders (IDDs) and associated risk factors (RFs) would allow to save resources. Objectives.1. To estimate the prevalence of children suspected of having IDDs. 2. To identify associated RFs. 3. To assess three methods developed based on observed RFs and propose a pre-screening procedure. Materials and Methods. The National Developmental Screening Test was administered to 60 randomly selected children aged between 2 and 4 years old from a socioeconomically disadvantaged area from Puerto Madryn. Twenty-four biological and socioenvironmental outcome measures were assessed in order to identify potential RFs using bivariate and multivariate analyses. The likelihood of failing the screening test was estimated as follows: 1. a multivariate logistic regression model was developed; 2. a relationship was established between the number of RFs present in each child and the percentage of children who failed the test; 3. these two methods were combined. Results. The prevalence of children suspected of having IDDs was 55.0% (95% confidence interval: 42.4%-67.6%). Six RFs were initially identified using the bivariate approach. Three of them (maternal education, number of health checkups and Z scores for height-for-age, and maternal age) were included in the logistic regression model, which has a greater explanatory power. The third method included in the assessment showed greater sensitivity and specificity (85% and 79%, respectively). Conclusions. The estimated prevalence of children suspected of having IDDs was four times higher than the national standards. Seven RFs were identified. Combining the analysis of risk factor accumulation and a multivariate model provides a firm basis for developing a sensitive, specific and practical pre-screening procedure for socioeconomically disadvantaged areas.Fil: Montes, Alejandro. Hospital Provincial Dr. Andrés Isola; ArgentinaFil: Pazos, Gustavo Enrique. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentin

Sobre las leyes locales

En este trabajo nos proponemos una investigación ontológica en la filosofía de las leyes naturales. En la bibliografía sobre el tema hallamos, en términos generales, dos grandes líneas de argumentación: Una de ellas, la concepción regularista, identifica las leyes naturales con regularidades en el mundo, la otra, que denominaremos realismo nómico, afirma que las leyes son entidades ontológicamente diferentes de regularidades. La postulación de una necesidad en la naturaleza, o de relaciones entre universales, para dar cuenta de esa diferencia, son algunas de las formas que cobra dicha concepción

Synthesis of Na-2-mica by sol-gel process and interlayering with the Keggin polycation (Al13)7+

Las micas (Na2[Si6Al2]Mg6O20F4.xH2O) sintéticas expandibles de alta carga(Na-2 mica) presentan una estructura de filosilicato laminar tipo 2:1. La carga laminar debido a la sustitución isomórfica es de 2 cationes sodio por celda unidad. La Na-2-mica tiene una elevada capacidad de intercambio catiónico (CIC) teórica de 247 meq/100g de mica, alta capacidad de hidratación y expansión

Building a Chemical Ontology using Methontology and the Ontology Design Environment

METHONTOLOGY PROVIDES GUIDELINES FOR SPECIFYING ONTOLOGIES AT THE KNOWLEDGE LEVEL, AS A SPECIFICATION OF A CONCEPTUALIZATION. ODE ENABLES ONTOLOGY CONSTRUCTION, COVERING THE ENTIRE LIFE CYCLE AND AUTOMATICALLY IMPLEMENTING ONTOLOGIE

Interlayered MnS Nanoclusters within a High-Charge Synthetic Sodium MICA (Na-2-MICA)

In this work a high charge swelling mica (Na-2-mica) with targeted composition Na2[Si6Al2]Mg6F4O20.XH2O was synthesized achieving high purity product by the sol-gel methodology, using methyltriethoxysilane (C7H18O3Si, 95 % purity) as silicon source. Development of interlayered MnS nanoclusters was achieved by Mn2+ cation exchange (Mn-mica) followed by H2S streaming (S2-/ Mn2+ ratio = 50) at room pressure and different temperatures of treatment (50, 100 or 150 °C). In addition, the effect of post- calcination step was also investigated at 200 °C or 400 °C under either, N2 or synthetic air atmosphere. XRD pattern of the Mn-mica showed shifted 001 reflections (d001 =1.385 nm and d001 =1.350 nm) to lower 2θ angle in comparison to the starting aluminosilicate (d001 =1.210 nm). The Mn2+-ion exchange achieved 17.4 % w/w of the metal incorporated in the Mn-mica, where the CEC of the Na-2-mica (270 meq/100g, dry basis) only decreased slightly upon Mn homoionization (CECMn-mica = 253 meq/100 g, dry basis). The XRD analyses showed that upon sulfidation at 50 °C, some of the clay layers stabilized at d001 = 1.353 nm, typical of the metal ion surrounded by a double layer of water molecules, and other fraction at d001 = 1.206 nm, typical of the metal ion surrounded by a water monolayer, whereas under 150 °C signals at 0.983 nm, attributed to anhydrous Na-2-mica, and 1.059 nm, probably related to the anhydrous Mn-mica, were found. Solid treated at 100 °C displayed a single signal d001 = 1.204 nm that could be ascribed to MnS interlayered nanoparticles, that splitted into two reflections (1.21 nm and 1.05 nm) upon thermal treatment at 200 °C in the presence of either inert (N2) or oxidizing atmosphere (air). Finally, upon treatment at 400 °C/N2 or air, signals corresponding to partial collapse and MnS interlayered nanoparticles (1.21 nm) were found

NCBO Ontology Recommender 2.0: An Enhanced Approach for Biomedical Ontology Recommendation

Biomedical researchers use ontologies to annotate their data with ontology terms, enabling better data integration and interoperability. However, the number, variety and complexity of current biomedical ontologies make it cumbersome for researchers to determine which ones to reuse for their specific needs. To overcome this problem, in 2010 the National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) released the Ontology Recommender, which is a service that receives a biomedical text corpus or a list of keywords and suggests ontologies appropriate for referencing the indicated terms. We developed a new version of the NCBO Ontology Recommender. Called Ontology Recommender 2.0, it uses a new recommendation approach that evaluates the relevance of an ontology to biomedical text data according to four criteria: (1) the extent to which the ontology covers the input data; (2) the acceptance of the ontology in the biomedical community; (3) the level of detail of the ontology classes that cover the input data; and (4) the specialization of the ontology to the domain of the input data. Our evaluation shows that the enhanced recommender provides higher quality suggestions than the original approach, providing better coverage of the input data, more detailed information about their concepts, increased specialization for the domain of the input data, and greater acceptance and use in the community. In addition, it provides users with more explanatory information, along with suggestions of not only individual ontologies but also groups of ontologies. It also can be customized to fit the needs of different scenarios. Ontology Recommender 2.0 combines the strengths of its predecessor with a range of adjustments and new features that improve its reliability and usefulness. Ontology Recommender 2.0 recommends over 500 biomedical ontologies from the NCBO BioPortal platform, where it is openly available.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, 11 table