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Objective: Establish an explanatory model through latent variables analysis of tobacco consumption based on al- cohol consumption and alcohol consumption based on attitudes towards consumption in a sample of university students in Ecuador. Method: Descriptive correlational and explanatory design using SEM (Structural Equation Mo- deling) techniques. Participants: 546 students (69.2% women) aged between 17 and 41 years old (M= 21.3 years old; SD= 2.6), from four universities (45.1% public ones) in two cities of Ecuador. Results: The predominance of alcohol consumption is high; the prevalence of tobacco consumption is low, and attitudes towards alcohol consumption are ambivalent. Alcohol attitudes predict alcohol consumption (R2= .57) and alcohol consumption predicts tobacco consumption (R2= .26). Attitudes and consumption provide an explanatory model for tobacco consumption with ꭓ2= 662.59; p< .001; df= 480; ꭓ2/gl= 1.4; CFI= .95; TLI= .94; SRMR= .049; RMSEA= .026 [.021 - .031]. Conclusions: The study of attitudes and consumption behaviors are important for a better understanding about alcohol and tobacco consumption in university students.

The most popular instrument used to measure emotional regulation is the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), allowing researchers to study intergroup differences in emotional regulation across many different cultures. However, to make multi-group comparisons, factors within the measurement instrument must be invariant across groups. This invariance is necessary to ensure that any significant differences found between groups are due to group affiliation and not due to measurement errors in the instrument’s factors. The study examined measurement invariance of the ERQ by gender using an Ecuadorian sample, where very few studies have previously investigated this issue. The sample included 815 college students. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the bi-factor model presented the best fit. The ERQ was invariant by gender at the strict level according to multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. The ERQ also presented good reliability scores for both men and women with no significant differences between genders. These results confirm that the ERQ is a reliable instrument and that it can detect differences in the use of emotional regulation strategies between men and women without risking errors caused by measurement variance.

The research interest of the scientific community in biofilm-forming microorganisms is growing due to the problems caused by their infections affecting humans and animals, mainly because of the difficulty of the host immune system in eradicating these microbial complex communities and the increasing antimicrobial resistance rates worldwide. This review describes the virulence factors and their interaction with the microbial communities of four well-known and highly biofilm-forming pathogens, more exactly, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus spp., and Candida spp. The innate and adaptive immune responses caused by the infection with these microorganisms and their evasion to the host immune system by biofilm formation are discussed in the present work. The relevance of the differences in the expression of certain virulence factors and the immune response in biofilm-associated infections when compared to planktonic infections is usually described as the biofilm architecture protects the pathogen and alters the host immune responses, here we extensively discussed these mechanisms.

The aims of the research are to evaluate the factorial validity, internal consistency, measurement invariance, discrimination, and difficulty of the Covid-19 Anxiety Scale (CAS) applied to a sample of Ecuadorian adults ( N = 451). The study is based on an instrumental design with Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) technics. The results confirmed the validity of the CAS single-factor structure, with measurement invariance across gender and high internal consistency. Additionally, all CAS items displayed adequate discrimination indexes and proper ordering of the difficulty thresholds. In a conclusion, the CAS is a valid measurement scale for Ecuadorian adults.

Introducción: A finales del año 2019, se reportaron casos COVID-19, inicialmente se consideró una neumonía de origen desconocido, posteriormente se convirtió en amenaza para los sistemas sanitarios, que afecta al personal de salud por la repercusión emocional que implica enfrentarse a situaciones complejas y estresantes, que alteran los mecanismos de regulación emocional y la capacidad de adaptación a la vida cotidiana. Objetivo: El principal objetivo es analizar la Salud Mental del Personal Sanitario ante la pandemia del coronavirus (COVID-19). Metodología: Se realizó un estudio de tipo no experimental, de enfoque cuantitativo, descriptivo; se aplicó un instrumento (encuesta) previamente validado por expertos. Población: 118 profesionales Resultados: se evidencia que la edad que predomina fue de 31-40 años, el 92% tuvo temor de perder su vida, el 61.9% indico que solo algunas veces recibió el equipo de protección necesario. En el test DASS 21 se evidencio que el personal que más presenta estados psicológicos fue licenciado en enfermería, con los diferentes niveles de depresión y el género más vulnerable fue el femenino. Conclusiones: La pandemia ha sido devastador para el mundo en especial en Latinoamérica. En la actualidad la pandemia presenta un momento crítico que genera en el personal de salud ansiedad, depresión, estrés, por lo que se debe implementar equipos de intervención psicológica y proporcionar la atención y el asesoramiento necesario, con estrategias globales de autocuidado, para disminuir los efectos negativos en la salud mental.