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Copyright of REICE. Ibero-American Journal on Quality, Effectiveness & Change in Education / REICE. Revista Iberoamericana Sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación is the property of Red Iberoamericana de Investigacion sobre Cambio y Eficacia en Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Therya is the property of Asociacion Mexicana de Mastozoologia, A. C. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

No abstract available [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Assess potential relationships between the Human Development Index (HDI) and its components and the incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in four endemic States of Venezuela (Mérida, Trujillo, Lara and Sucre) in the period 1994-2003. Material and methods. Socioeconomical data (classified according the World Bank) was obtained from the National Institute of Statistics, and the epidemiological data from the Ministry of Health, both from Venezuela. for this ecological study the annual variation of the variables was assessed and also regression models were done. Results. The HDI varied in the period from 0.6746 in 1994 to 0.8144 in 2003 (p=0.90). During this time an increase in the cumulative incidence of Leishmaniasis was observed, particularly from 1998 (7.3 cases/100,000 pop) to 1999 (11.3 cases/100,000 pop). Analyzing the linear regression models, it was observed that the relationship between epidemiological and social variables was different at States levels. for Mérida and Trujillo it was observed a significant decrease in the CL regard to the increase of literacy (p<0.05), of the gross combined enrollment ( p<0.05), life expectancy (p<0.05), money income (p<0.05) and the HDI (p<0.05). Conclusion. This information reflects the significant influence of socioeconomical indicators on the CL incidence at Trujillo and Merida, being an inverse relationship between both types of variables; with an increase or improvement in the socioeconomical indicators, the disease incidence rate decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal History of Latin American Education / Revista Historia de la Educación Latinoamericana is the property of Universidad Pedagogica y Tecnologica de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Spatial associations between columnar cacti and mimosoid shrubs were evaluated in an Andean semidesert enclave. An analysis on the capacity of other deciduous shrub species and medium-sized ephemeral plants to modify the spatial distribution of cacti was also included. The number of Stenocereus griseus (Haw.) F. Buxb., Cereus repandus (L.) Backeb. and Pilosocereus tillianus Gruber & Schaftzl that grow below the canopies of perennial plants were assessed and compared with open areas. Comparison of observed and expected number of cactus individuals shows a positive spatial association between S. griseus and Prosopis juliflora DC. Moreover, abundance of C. repandus and P. tillianus under the canopies of mimosoid shrubs were not statistically different from what was expected by chance. Positive spatial association between S. griseus and Capparis odoratissima Jacq., Cassia emarginata L., Cordia curassavica (Jacq.) Roem. & Schult., Croton rhamnifolius H.B.K. and Jatropha gossypifolia L. was also found. Evidence suggests that positive columnar cacti-shrub spatial association may occur either in the cactus thickets or in the thornscrubs. Due to the clumped distributions of S. griseus beneath P. juliflora and other perennial plants, we here postulate that S. griseus is the primary nursed columnar cactus of the enclave. The presence of cacti in open areas suggests that facilitation may be less important for establishment of columnar cacti species in this Andean semidesert landscape than in other temperate and tropical semiarid zones. We here discuss the importance of the nurse syndrome phenomenon for recruitment of S. griseus and for the conservation of this Andean semiarid environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nocardia species, one of the most predominant Actinobacteria of the soil microbiota, cause infection in humans following traumatic inoculation or inhalation. The identification, typing, phylogenetic relationship and antimicrobial susceptibilities of 38 soil Nocardia strains from Lara State, Venezuela, were studied by 16S rRNA and gyrB (subunit B of topoisomerase II) genes, multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), whole-genome sequencing (WGS), and microdilution. The results were compared with those for human strains. Just seven Nocardia species with one or two strains each, except for Nocardia cyriacigeorgica with 29, were identified. MLSA confirmed the species assignments made by 16S rRNA and gyrB analyses (89.5% and 71.0% respectively), and grouped each soil strain with its corresponding reference and clinical strains, except for 19 N. cyriacigeorgica strains found at five locations which grouped into a soil-only cluster. The soil strains of N. cyriacigeorgica showed fewer gyrB haplotypes than the examined human strains (13 vs. 17) but did show a larger number of gyrB SNPs (212 vs. 77). Their susceptibilities to antimicrobials were similar except for beta-lactams, fluoroquinolones, minocycline, and clarithromycin, with the soil strains more susceptible to the first three (p ≤ 0.05). WGS was performed on four strains belonging to the soil-only cluster and on two outside it, and the results compared with public N. cyriacigeorgica genomes. The average nucleotide/amino acid identity, in silico genome-to-genome hybridization similarity, and the difference in the genomic GC content, suggest that some strains of the soil-only cluster may belong to a novel subspecies or even a new species (proposed name Nocardia venezuelensis). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Trypanosoma cruzi congenital transmission in wild bats (Molossus molossus), associated with infected Rhodnius prolixus in a natural habitat from a rural locality in western Venezuela, is reported. T. cruzi blood circulating trypomastigotes in a pregnant bat were detected by parasitological methods. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays carried out in samples from the heart and the fetus of the same infected female, revealed the presence of T. cruzi-specific DNA in both of the tissues, demonstrating transmission of the infection from the mother to the offspring. Eighty percent of the captured bats and 100% of the examined fetuses from pregnant specimens were shown to be infected by T. cruzi, indicating that M. molossus is a very susceptible species for this parasite, and that T. cruzi congenital transmission is a common phenomenon in nature. To our knowledge, this seems to be the first report on congenital T. cruzi transmission in wild bats in Venezuela. The circulation of T. cruzi lineage I in the study area was demonstrated by typing the isolates from bats and triatomine bugs captured in the same habitat. The potential epidemiological implication of these findings in areas where Chagas disease is endemic is discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper a new approach to prioritize project portfolio in an efficient and reliable way is presented. It is based on strategic objectives of the company and multicriteria decision methods. The paper introduces a rigorous method with acceptable complexity which seeks to assist managers of a big Electrical Company of Venezuela to distribute the annual budget among the possible improvement actions to be conducted on the electrical network of Caracas. A total of 15 network improvement actions grouped into three clusters according to the strategic objectives of the company have been analyzed using the Project Strategic Index (PSI) proposed. The approach combines the use of the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method with the information obtained from the experts during the decision-making process. The ANP method allows the aggregation of the experts’ judgments on each of the indicators used into one Project Strategic Index. In addition, ANP is based on utility ratio functions which are the most appropriate for the analysis of uncertain data, like experts’ estimations. Finally, unlike the other multicriteria techniques, ANP allows the decision problem to be modelled using the relationships among dependent criteria. The participating experts coincided in the appreciation that the method proposed in this paper is useful and an improvement from traditional budget distribution techniques. They find the results obtained coherent, the process seems sufficiently rigorous and precise, and the use of resources is significantly less than in other methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this article, a new species of salamander of the genus Bolitoglossa (Eladinea) from the cloud forest near La Mucuy in Sierra Nevada de Mérida, Venezuelan Andes, is described. Bolitoglossa mucuyensis sp. nov. differs from all Venezuelan salamanders, except B. orestes, by a larger SVL/TL ratio, and from La Culata salamander B. orestes by a reduced webbing extension of the front and hind limbs. Additionally, B. mucuyensis sp. nov. and B. orestes diverge 3.12% in terms of the nucleotide sequence of the 16S rRNA gene, as previously reported, and in 8.1% for the cytb gene as shown in this study.