Search

Background Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a treatable disease with a high prevalence, and high morbidity associated with significant socioeconomic costs. Objective To carry out a systematic review of the literature to analyze the main cost studies associated with COPD, in order to determine the main factors that influence the costs of the disease. Methods Searches were conducted in PubMed, SCOPUS and Web of Science databases for cost studies on COPD published in English, between the years 2015 and 2020. The search terms were “COPD” OR “pulmonary disease, chronic obstructive”, “cost*” OR “cost of illness”, “economic impact” AND “burden of disease”. The inclusion criteria included the identification of reported cost of the disease, economic burden, medical care expenses or use resources for COPD, the methodology used, data sources, and variables studied. Results 18 publications were analyzed: 17 included direct health costs, 6 included direct non-medical costs, 12 analyzed indirect costs and two reported intangible costs. Most of the studies reported data for developed and European countries, with direct costs being the most studied. Trends were observed in multiple studies of direct and healthcare costs for European countries measured by patient and year, where the higher costs were associated with more severe COPD and a frequent history of exacerbations. The highest costs reported corresponded to hospitalizations and the associated pharmacological treatment. The importance of the loss of productivity and premature retirement within the profile of the COPD patient was also highlighted as the main generator of indirect costs of the disease. Conclusion COPD generates substantial costs for the health system, mainly related to moderate to severe stages and the exacerbations and complications entailed. It is important to strengthen health systems with monitoring, evaluation and health education models that allow these patients to remain stable to avoid decompensation and subsequent hospitalizations.

Learning additional languages is considered to be something positive and stimulating for a lot of people. Such is its significance or value that almost every citizen knows more than one language. The purpose of this study relies on showing how English language is acquired in a society where there is a language contact between Catalan language and Spanish language, focusing particularly on the kind of communication and interaction within the educational system. Its main objective is to find out the attitudes learners have towards this topic and indicate the ways in which they make use of the language, so as to mention the major obstacles they may face in the acquisition process. Additionally, it tries to highlight which are the most relevant aspects to carefully bear in mind when developing oral communication within the classrooms.

During 2015 and 2016, two experiments were conducted under contrasting climatic conditions (rainy and dry seasons, respectively) in Campeche, Mexico, to test various thresholds (treatments) of soil moisture tension for the beginning of irrigation, and their effect on the yield and quality of Habanero Chilies, and also on the efficiency of water use, the virtual water content and its blue and green components. In both experiments, irrigation was initiated when the soil moisture tension, measured at 30 cm depth, took the values −10, −40 and −70 kPa, considered as treatments, using producer irrigation management as a control. The number of fruits per plant (NFP), fruit weight per plant (FWP), fruit diameter (FD), fruit length (FL), yield (Y), total water use efficiency (TWUE), irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), virtual water (VW), green virtual water (GVW), and blue virtual water (BVW) were determined and statistically analyzed. During 2015, rains masked treatment effects, although significant effects were detected for FL, IWUE, VW and BVW. In 2016, the different irrigation treatments during the dry season had significant effects on the variables NFP, FWP and Y, with statistically higher values in the −10 kPa treatment; and also in IWUE, GVW and BVW with statistically higher values in the −70 kPa, −40 kPa and the control treatments, respectively. Nearly all crop growth and yield related variables had higher values with lower soil moisture tension. In both production cycles, significantly lowest values for IWUE and significantly highest values for BVW were obtained under producer irrigation management (controls); whereas significantly highest values were recorded for IWUE and significantly lowest for BVW in the −40 and −70 kPa treatments. It was concluded that the use of tensiometers to define the beginning of irrigation allows for improving irrigation sustainability.

Learning additional languages is considered to be something positive and stimulating for a lot of people. Such is its significance or value that almost every citizen knows more than one language. The purpose of this study relies on showing how English language is acquired in a society where there is a language contact between Catalan language and Spanish language, focusing particularly on the kind of communication and interaction within the educational system. Its main objective is to find out the attitudes learners have towards this topic and indicate the ways in which they make use of the language, so as to mention the major obstacles they may face in the acquisition process. Additionally, it tries to highlight which are the most relevant aspects to carefully bear in mind when developing oral communication within the classrooms.