El artículo se propone analizar la fundación del primer Instituto agrario del Ecuador mediante una reconstitución del itinerario de su director, el médico siciliano José Indelicato, que permitirá ...esclarecer el doble contexto en que se creó el establecimiento: la difusión del socialismo utópico, que marcó el recorrido de Indelicato, y el auge de la agronomía como ciencia específica, que llevó a la creación de las primeras escuelas de agricultura en Europa y América a principios del siglo XIX.
The rivalry between Quito and Guayaquil is a long-term issue and has often been assessed by the Ecuadorian historiography. This paper aims at treating this question from a short-term perspective, by ...focusing on two events that came about in the wake of the Liberal Revolution, the expulsion of the liberal senator Felicísimo López from the Senate in 1894 and the proclamation of the liberal leader Eloy Alfaro as Supreme Leader of the Republic in Guayaquil in 1895. These two events did not just crystallize the conflict between conservatives and liberals, but also stirred up a debate on the relationship between the two main cities of Ecuador and on the status of Quito as the capital of the Republic. The analysis of this debate will be based on the conflicting perspectives supported by the liberal press of Guayaquil and the conservative press of Quito.
Natural biological materials are formed by self-assembly processes and catalyze a myriad of reactions. Here, we report a programmable molecular assembly of designed synthetic polymers with engineered ...bacterial spores. This self-assembly process is driven by dynamic covalent bond formation on spore surface glycan and yields macroscopic materials that are structurally stable, self-healing, and recyclable. Molecular programming of polymer species shapes the physical properties of these materials while metabolically dormant spores allow for prolonged ambient storage. Incorporation of spores with genetically encoded functionalities enables operationally simple and repeated enzymatic catalysis. Our work combines molecular and genetic engineering to offer scalable and programmable synthesis of robust materials for sustainable biocatalysis.
Choosing a valid and feasible method to measure child developmental outcomes is key to addressing developmental delays, which have been shown to be associated with high levels of unemployment, ...participation in crime, and teen pregnancies. However, measuring early childhood development (ECD) with multi-dimensional diagnostic tests such as the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development III (Bayley-III) can be time-consuming and expensive; therefore, parental screening tools such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) are frequently an alternative measure of early childhood development in large-scale research. The ASQ is also becoming more frequently used as the first step to identify children at risk for developmental delays before conducting a diagnostic test to confirm. However, the effectiveness of the ASQ-3 is uncertain. In this study, we evaluate the accuracy of the ASQ-3 as a screening measure for children at risk of developmental delay in rural China by age group. To do so, we administered the Bayley-III, widely considered to be the "gold standard" of ECD diagnostic tests, to a sample of 1,831 five to twenty-four month-old children and also administered the ASQ-3 to their caregivers. We then compared the outcomes of the ASQ-3 test to those of the Bayley-III. We find that the ASQ-3 was significantly though weakly correlated with the Bayley-III and that the strength of this correlation increased with child age and was stronger when the mother was the primary caregiver (as compared to the grandmother). We also find that the sensitivity and specificity of ASQ-3 ranged widely. The overall findings suggest that the ASQ-3 may not be a very accurate screening tool for identifying developmentally delayed children, especially for children under 13 months of age or children whose primary caregiver is not the mother.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Sleep loss disrupts consolidation of hippocampus-dependent memory. To characterize effects of learning and sleep loss, we quantified activity-dependent phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 (pS6) ...across the dorsal hippocampus of mice. We find that pS6 is enhanced in dentate gyrus (DG) following single-trial contextual fear conditioning (CFC) but is reduced throughout the hippocampus after brief sleep deprivation (SD; which disrupts contextual fear memory CFM consolidation). To characterize neuronal populations affected by SD, we used translating ribosome affinity purification sequencing to identify cell type-specific transcripts on pS6 ribosomes (pS6-TRAP). Cell type-specific enrichment analysis revealed that SD selectively activated hippocampal somatostatin-expressing (Sst+) interneurons and cholinergic and orexinergic hippocampal inputs. To understand the functional consequences of SD-elevated Sst+ interneuron activity, we used pharmacogenetics to activate or inhibit hippocampal Sst+ interneurons or cholinergic input from the medial septum. The activation of either cell population was sufficient to disrupt sleep-dependent CFM consolidation by gating activity in granule cells. The inhibition of either cell population during sleep promoted CFM consolidation and increased S6 phosphorylation among DG granule cells, suggesting their disinhibition by these manipulations. The inhibition of either population across post-CFC SD was insufficient to fully rescue CFM deficits, suggesting that additional features of sleeping brain activity are required for consolidation. Together, our data suggest that state-dependent gating of DG activity may be mediated by cholinergic input and local Sst+ interneurons. This mechanism could act as a sleep loss-driven inhibitory gate on hippocampal information processing.
China's rapid development and urbanization have induced large numbers of rural residents to migrate from their homes to urban areas in search of better job opportunities. Parents typically leave ...their children behind with a caregiver, creating a new, potentially vulnerable subpopulation of left-behind children in rural areas. A growing number of policies and nongovernmental organization efforts target these children. The primary objective of this study was to examine whether left-behind children are really the most vulnerable and in need of special programs. Pulling data from a comprehensive data set covering 141,000 children in ten provinces (from twenty-seven surveys conducted between 2009 and 2013), we analyzed nine indicators of health, nutrition, and education. We found that for all nine indicators, left-behind children performed as well as or better than children living with both parents. However, both groups of children performed poorly on most of these indicators. Based on these findings, we recommend that special programs designed to improve health, nutrition, and education among left-behind children be expanded to cover all children in rural China.
Geomorphic differences among Caribbean reefs have long been noted. These differences are considered to reflect the presence of reefs in different stages of development, following an incomplete ...recovery from rapid deglacial sea-level rise. But the possibility that these reflect real developmental differences caused by variation in wind, wave, and climate regime, has never been fully considered. Here, for the first time, we quantify the geomorphology and distribution of Greater Caribbean reefs using satellite images in Google Earth and public-domain bathymetry. To do this, we first standardise their classification based on shallow geomorphology, substrate depth, and physiographic setting, and then count and categorise the total number of reefs. These data show a total of 1023 linear breakwater reefs with a combined length of 2237 km. Of this total length, 80% are fringing reefs, 16% are barriers and 4% are faros and atolls. In terms of categories, there are 16 reef subtypes present, but only 9 are common. Their distribution, however, is not uniform. In particular, flat-subtypes form 60% of breakwater reefs in southern regions, but are less common in northern regions where crest-subtypes dominate (80%). To distinguish the geomorphology of these common reef subtypes, we collect size- and length-related morphometric data from their main reef zones. These data reveal that flat and crest subtypes also have morphometric differences: flat subtypes have well-constrained morphologies with statistically consistent unimodal morphometrics characterised by large back-reef zones, smaller and steeper reef fronts, and more sinuous and persistent crestlines. Crest subtypes, by contrast, have multimodal morphometrics suggesting less consistent morphologies (or unresolved subtypes), and are characterised by crestlines with lower sinuosity, more variable back-reef and reef-front areas, and slopes. These differences in geomorphology and distribution imply that flat- and crest-subtypes are neither successional stages of a single reef type, nor a genetically related sequence of types, but distinct reefal geoforms with different modes of development. In subsequent work we will explore what controls these differences.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Half of rural toddlers aged 0-3 years in China's Qinling Mountainous region are cognitively delayed. While recent studies have linked poor child development measures to the absence of positive ...parenting behaviors, much less is known about the role that caregiver depression might play in shaping child development. In this paper, a mixed methods analysis is used to explore the prevalence of depression; measure the association between caregiver depression and children's developmental delays, correlates of depression, and the potential reasons for caregiver depression among women in rural China. The analysis brings together results from a large-scale survey of 1,787 caregivers across 118 villages in one northwestern province, as well as information from in-depth interviews with 55 female caregivers from these same study sites. Participants were asked to respond to the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) as well as a scale to measure children's social-emotional development, the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional (ASQ-SE). We also administered a test of early childhood development, the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID-III), to all of the study household's infants and toddlers. The results show that the prevalence of depression may be as high as 23.5 percent among all female caregivers (defined as scoring in the mild or higher category of the DASS-21). Grandmothers have higher prevalence of depression than mother caregivers (
< 0.01). Caregiver depression also is significantly associated with a 0.53 SD worsening of children's social-emotional development (
< 0.01) and a 0.12 SD decrease in children's language development (
< 0.05). Our qualitative findings reveal six predominant reasons for caregiver depression: lack of social support from family and friends; the burden of caregiving; lack of control and agency within the household; within-family conflict; poverty; the perception of material wealth as a measure of self-worth. Our findings show a serious lack of understanding of mental health issues among rural women, and suggest that rural communities could benefit greatly from an educational program concerning mental health and its influence on child development. Our findings confirm the need for a comprehensive approach toward rural health, with particular attention paid to mental health awareness and support to elderly caregivers.
A rich language environment is an important element of a nurturing home environment. Despite their proven importance, vocabulary and conversation have been shown to vary widely across households-even ...within the same socio-economic class. One significant gap in the existing literature is its nearly exclusive geographic focus on Western and developed settings, with little attention given to poorer communities in lower/middle income countries. The purpose of this study was to empirically illustrate the characteristics of the home language environment in the low SES, non-Western cultural setting of rural China.
Using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) automated language-analysis system, this study measured the home language environment of 38 children aged 20-27 months in Northwest rural China. Our primary measures of the home language environment were Adult Word Count (AWC), Conversational Turn Count (CTC) and Child Vocalization Count (CVC). Multivariate linear regression models were used to examine the association between home language environment and family/child characteristics, and language skills (Measured by MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory score).
In this paper, by comparison, we found that the home language environment of our rural sample fell far behind that of urban households. We also identify significant, positive correlations between language skills and both AWC and CTC. Our analysis finds no significant correlations between home language environment and family/child characteristics.
In this paper, we present the first ever findings using the LENA system to measure the home language environment of young children from poor rural communities in China. We found that the home language environment of lower-SES household was significantly worse than high-SES households, and demonstrated the importance of the home language environment to language skills, pointing to a need for more high-quality studies of the home language environment in rural China to better understand possible mechanisms behind low levels of parent-child language engagement and ways to improve the home language environment.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Objective:
To examine Hb level and anaemia status among infants under 6 months of age in rural China.
Design:
A cross-sectional survey collected data among infants under 6 months and their ...primary caregivers in Sichuan, China. Anaemia was defined using both the WHO and China Pediatrics Association thresholds. Multivariable linear regression was used to identify relevant factors among two age groups (<4 months; 4–5 months).
Setting:
Eighty townships were selected in Sichuan, China from November to December 2019.
Participants:
Nine hundred and forty-two infants under 6 months, while Hb level was tested for 577 infants.
Results:
The overall mean (±
sd
) Hb level was 106·03 (± 12·04) g/l. About 62·6 % (95 % CI 58·5, 66·6) of sample infants were anaemic using the WHO threshold, and 20·5 % (95 % CI 17·3, 24·1) were anaemic using the China Pediatrics Association thresholds. Anaemia rates rose with increasing age in months. Multivariable linear regressions revealed that lower Hb levels were significantly associated with lower birth weight (<4 months:
β
= 4·14, 95 % CI 0·19, 8·08; 4–5 months:
β
= 6·60, 95 % CI 2·94, 10·27) and delivery by caesarean section (<4 months:
β
= −4·64, 95 % CI −7·79, −1·49; 4–5 months:
β
= −4·58, 95 % CI −7·45, −1·71).
Conclusion:
A large share of infants under 6 months in rural western China are anaemic. Infants with low birth weight and caesarean delivered should be prioritised for anaemia testing. Future studies should move the point of focus forward to at least 4 months of age and examine the link between caesarean section and anaemia to promote health and development in infancy.
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