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Research Findings: This study examined Mexican caretaker roles, beliefs, and practices around their child's language and literacy development. Twenty-six parents in three preschools representing three socioeconomic strata located in Querétaro City, México completed questionnaires and participated in focus groups. We used convergent parallel mixed methods to analyze and compare parent questionnaire quantitative data and qualitative focus group data with a grounded theory approach to identify focus group discussion themes. Four themes were emerged: (a) Goals and expectations regarding reading and socioemotional development, (b) Perceptions and beliefs about children's oral and written language, (c) Caretaker's perceived role in children's language and literacy development, and (d) Home and community learning-related resources and practices. Findings highlighted that Mexican parents highly value supporting their children's education both socioemotionally and through engagement in literacy routines--evidence of duality in the "educacíón" value among native Mexican families. These literacy routines were complementary and responsive to teacher classroom instruction. Practice or Policy: Understanding how Latino families instantiate literacy practices to respond to American schooling expectations may be a way to address home-school discontinuities that often reflect lack of familiarity with the U.S. educational system.

In this article, we attempt to map out the "in-between" space between global and cultural narratives that mediates women's educational trajectories. Case studies of women living on the U.S.-Mexico border make visible these spaces, sites of "practices of emergence": the practices that emerge from incommensurable economic demands and social prescriptions and produced in the act of social survival. In negotiating both global and cultural narratives, materially and ideologically, the occupants and ideas that inhabit these spaces are in constant flux, resulting in the reformulation of the notions of mothering, pedagogy, and place, resulting in variable educational outcomes for women. (Contains 8 footnotes.)

Introduction and objectives: Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) is a major cause of co-morbidity in people living with HIV (PLWHIV). The modes of HCV transmission in the local population of PLWHIV are still unclear. We conducted this study to identify risk factors for HCV transmission amongst PLWHIV in central Mexico. Material and methods: We enrolled HIV/HCV co-infected cases and HIV controls receiving care in two outpatient clinics in Mexico City. Structured questionnaires were applied, covering demographics, history of percutaneous exposures, sexual behaviors, self-reported STD and recreational drug use. The statistical analysis for between-group comparisons were multivariate logistic regression models to assess the risk factors associated with HCV co-infection. We limited the final analysis to men who have sex with men (MSM) to avoid confounders potentially related to HCV acquisition in other populations. Results: Three hundred and thirty-four MSM with HIV (175 with HCV co-infection and 159 without) were analysed. We did not identify percutaneous exposures as risk factors for HCV. Intravenous drug use (IVDU) occurred in two cases and one control case. Risk factors independently associated with acquiring HCV coinfection were: history of an ulcerative STD (aOR=2.65, 95%CI=1.44-4.88), a HCV positive partner (aOR=5.25, 95%CI=2.78-9.91), having practiced insertive fisting (aOR=2.62, 95%CI=1.01-6.90), and rectal administration of drugs during sex (aOR=2.46, 95%CI=1.25-4.84). Conclusions: Risky sexual behaviors and chemsex seem to be the main drivers of HIV/HCV co-infection amongst PLWHIV in Central Mexico. IVDU and percutaneous exposures have a minor role in the local HCV epidemic. These findings highlight the importance of testing for HCV in sexually active MSMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To assess the proportion of breast cancer patients treated with total mastectomy who are interested in undergoing breast reconstruction, the factors associated with their desire to undergo this procedure, and the motives stated for their decision. Methods: Women with stage I–III breast cancer, public health insurance, and history of total mastectomy treated at a center in Monterrey, Mexico, were invited to answer a series of questionnaires regarding their clinical and demographic characteristics, information received about breast reconstruction, body image, and relationship satisfaction. Results: A total of 100 patients were interviewed, of which 68% desired to undergo breast reconstruction. Only 35% recalled talking about this procedure with a physician and 85% claimed not to have enough information to make an informed decision. Those who desired breast reconstruction were younger (p < 0.001), more likely to be in a relationship (p = 0.025), and had a higher probability of having talked to a physician about the procedure (p = 0.019). Furthermore, they felt less sexually attractive (p < 0.001), more deformed (p = 0.006), and less feminine (p = 0.005) since the mastectomy. The main motives to undergo this procedure were to have breast symmetry and greater freedom on which clothes to wear, while the main deterrent was the high economical cost. Conclusions: Insufficient information about the procedure and high economical cost were identified as potential barriers to undergo breast reconstruction. The findings of this study emphasize the pressing need to optimize patient care by providing information in a standardized manner and improving access to breast reconstruction within the Mexican public healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pandemic type A (H1N1) influenza arose in early 2009, probably in Mexico and the United States, and reappeared in North America in September for seven more months. An amino acid substitution in the hemagglutinin (HA), D222G, has been reported in a significant proportion of patients with a severe and fatal outcome. We studied the prevalence of HA222 substitutions in patients in Mexico during the second wave and its association with clinical outcome and pathogenicity in a mouse model. Methods: The nucleotide sequences of hemagglutinin (HA) from viruses collected from 77 patients were determined including 50 severe and fatal cases and 27 ambulatory cases. Deep sequencing was done on 5 samples from severe or fatal cases in order to determine the quasispecies proportion. Weight loss and mortality due to infection with cultured influenza viruses were analyzed in a mouse model. Results: Viruses from 14 out of 50 hospitalized patients (28%) had a non aspartic acid residue at the HA 222 position (nD222), while all 27 ambulatory patients had D222 (p = 0.0014). G222 was detected as sole species or in coexistence with N222 and D222 in 12 patients with severe disease including 8 who died. N222 in coexistence with D222 was detected in 1 patient who died and co-occurrence of A222 and V222, together with D222, was detected in another patient who died. The patients with a nD222 residue had higher mortality (71.4%), compared to the group with only D222 (22.2%, p = 0.0008). Four of the 14 viruses from hospitalized patients were cultured and intranasally infected into mice. Two viruses with G222 were lethal while a third virus, with G222, caused only mild illness in mice similar to the fourth virus that contained D222. Conclusions: We confirm the elevated incidence of HA222 (H1N1)pdm09 variants in severe disease and mortality. Both clinical and mouse infection data support the idea that nD222 mutations contribute to increased severity of disease but additional determinants in disease outcome may be present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey of the presence of Salmonella and Shigella in freshly squeezed orange juice and related samples was conducted in Guadalajara, Mexico. One hundred samples of freshly squeezed orange juice were collected from 49 street booths and 51 small food service establishments. In addition, 75 fresh orange samples, each consisting of five orange units, and 75 wiping cloths were collected from the same establishments from which juice had been collected. Salmonella was isolated from 14, 20, and 23% of samples of orange juice, orange surfaces, and wiping cloths collected from street vendors, while Shigella was isolated from 6, 17, and 5% of these samples. In general, the frequency of isolation of these pathogens in samples from juice serving establishments at public markets was significantly lower than that found among street vendor$ (P < 0.05). Salmonella enterica serotypes Agona, Typhimurium, and Anatum were found in orange juice, fresh oranges, and wiping cloth samples, while serotype Mexico was found on fresh oranges and in wiping cloths and serotypes Muenchen and Panama were found only in wiping cloth samples. Regarding Shigella species, Shigella sonnei was found in all three types of sample tested; Shigella dysenteriae was found in juice and orange samples, Shigella boydii in orange and wiping cloth samples, and Shigella flexneri on oranges only. Thirty-one percent and 39% of the juice samples showed aerobic plate counts of ≥5.0 log CFU/ml and Escherichia coli counts of >3.0 log CFU/ml, respectively. These high counts may indicate poor sanitation and potential exposure to fecal contamination either in the raw materials or during the orange-crushing and juice-serving process. These data may be useful for a further risk assessment of Salmonella or Shigella in unpasteurized, freshly squeezed juice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the process of privatization and deregulation in the telecommunication industry in Mexico. Demographical information on Mexico; Background information on telecommunications development in the country; Details on the deregulation phase; Information on the privatization process in the country.

Genomic selection has been proposed for the mitigation of methane (CH4) emissions by cattle because there is considerable variability in CH4 emissions between individuals fed on the same diet. The genome-wide association study (GWAS) represents an important tool for the detection of candidate genes, haplotypes or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers related to characteristics of economic interest. The present study included information for 280 cows in three dairy production systems in Mexico: 1) Dual Purpose (n = 100), 2) Specialized Tropical Dairy (n = 76), 3) Familiar Production System (n = 104). Concentrations of CH4 in a breath of individual cows at the time of milking (MEIm) were estimated through a system of infrared sensors. After quality control analyses, 21,958 SNPs were included. Associations of markers were made using a linear regression model, corrected with principal component analyses. In total, 46 SNPs were identified as significant for CH4 production. Several SNPs associated with CH4 production were found at regions previously described for quantitative trait loci of composition characteristics of meat, milk fatty acids and characteristics related to feed intake. It was concluded that the SNPs identified could be used in genomic selection programs in developing countries and combined with other datasets for global selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the genetic variability in the pig-human tapeworm, Taenia solium, by sequencing the genes for cytochrome oxidase I, internal transcribed spacer 1, and a diagnostic antigen, Ts14, from individual cysts isolated from Peru, Colombia, Mexico, India, China, and the Philippines. For these genes, the rate of nucleotide variation was minimal. Isolates from these countries can be distinguished based on one to eight nucleotide differences in the 396 nucleotide cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequence. However, all of the 15 isolates from within Peru had identical COI sequences. The Ts14 sequences from India and China were identical and differed from the Peru sequence by three nucleotides in 333. These data indicate that there is minimal genetic variability within the species T. solium. Minimal variability was also seen in the ITS1 sequence, but this variation was observed within the individual. Twenty-two cloned sequences from six isolates sorted into 13 unique sequences. The variability observed within the sequences from individual cysts was as great as the variability between the isolates.