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Background & objectives: Sandflies are vector insects associated with terrestrial forest ecosystems; in the Ecuadorian Andes, they participate in the transmission of human cutaneous leishmaniasis. This geographical area represents an opportunity to evaluate the role of sandflies as bioindicators of the degree of intervention of tropical humid forest ecosystems (THF) associated with changes in the ecology of the local landscape. Methods: CDC-light traps were used for collecting adult sandflies in February 2020 in a humid tropical forest within the Chocó Biosphere Reserve. All species were identified using morphological keys. Analysis data about abundance, richness, species accumulation, diversity index, species composition communities, species sex proportion, spatial sandflies environmental, Renyi’s Diversity Profile were performed to compare six spatial habitats in Mashpi locality, Ecuador. Results: Sandflies were collected (n-1435); the main species are represented by Trichophoromyia reburra, Nyssomyia trapidoi, Psathyromyia aclydifera, Psychodopygus panamensis and Lutzomyia hartmanni. Only Th. reburra is associated with not intervened forest, while the other three species are associated with intervened forest within Mashpi in the Choco Biosphere Reserve. The secondary forest has major sandflies’ richness, while the primary forest exhibits major abundance. Interpretation & conclusion: Th. reburra is a sandfly restricted to the Andean Forest and is a bioindicator of the high environmental health quality of the forest, while Ny. trapidoi and Pa. aclydifera are bioindicators of environmental disturbances in the forest. Additionally, Ps. panamensis, Lu. hartmanni and Ny. trapidoi are bioindicators of human impact and the risk of leishmaniasis.

Objectives: This study evaluated the effects of adding silver nanoparticles on the shear bond strength, microhardness, and surface roughness of orthodontic adhesives. Material and Methods: Fifty upper premolars were randomly allocated to five groups (n = 10). Orthodontic brackets were bonded with silver nanoparticle (AgNP)-modified adhesives (1 %, 0.5 %, 0.1 %, 0.05 %), and conventional adhesive was used as a control. The shear bond strength was recorded using a universal testing machine, and the adhesive remnant index was evaluated using a stereomicroscope. Ten discs of each adhesive were subjected to the microhardness and surface roughness tests. The Vickers microhardness values were measured under a constant load of 100 g for 30 s using a microhardness tester. The samples were analyzed using a surface profilometer, and the arithmetic average roughness was used as the measurement parameter. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and chi-square tests. A significance level of 5 % was considered significant. Results: AgNP concentration > 0.1 % significantly reduced the shear bond strength (p 0.1 % (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The incorporation of AgNP into an orthodontic adhesive has the potential to decrease the shear bond strength while increasing the microhardness and surface roughness.

BackgroundIntestinal infectious diseases are a global concern in terms of morbidity, and they are closely linked to socioeconomic variables such as quality of life, weather and access to healthcare services. Despite progress in spatial analysis tools and geographic information systems in epidemiology, studies in Ecuador that evaluate temporal trends, specific geographic groups, and their correlation with socioeconomic variables are lacking. The absence of such information makes it challenging to formulate public health policies. This study sought to identify the spatial and temporal patterns of these diseases in Ecuador, along with their correlation with socioeconomic variables.MethodsIn Ecuador, the study was carried out in a continental territory, focusing on data related to intestinal infectious diseases collected from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos) during the period from 2014 to 2019. This study involved spatial and temporal analyses using tools such as the global Moran’s index and Local Indicators of Spatial Association to identify spatial clustering patterns and autocorrelation. Additionally, correlations between morbidity rates and socioeconomic variables were examined.ResultsDuring the investigated period, Ecuador registered 209,668 cases of these diseases. Notable variations in case numbers were identified, with a 9.2% increase in 2019 compared to the previous year. The most impacted group was children under 5 years old, and the highest rates were centered in the southern and southwestern regions of the country, with Limón Indanza and Chunchi being the cantons with the highest rates, notably showing a significant increase in Limón Indanza. Additionally, there were significant correlations between morbidity rates and socioeconomic variables, school dropout rates, low birth weight, and access to water services.ConclusionThis study emphasizes the importance of considering socioeconomic variables when addressing these diseases in Ecuador. Understanding these correlations and geospatial trends can guide the development of health policies and specific intervention programs to reduce the incidence in identified high-risk areas. More specific research is needed to understand the underlying causes of variability in morbidity and develop effective prevention strategies.

Fraud detection through auditors’ manual review of accounting and financial records has traditionally relied on human experience and intuition. However, replicating this task using technological tools has represented a challenge for information security researchers. Natural language processing techniques, such as topic modeling, have been explored to extract information and categorize large sets of documents. Topic modeling, such as latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) or non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), has recently gained popularity for discovering thematic structures in text collections. However, unsupervised topic modeling may not always produce the best results for specific tasks, such as fraud detection. Therefore, in the present work, we propose to use semi-supervised topic modeling, which allows the incorporation of specific knowledge of the study domain through the use of keywords to learn latent topics related to fraud. By leveraging relevant keywords, our proposed approach aims to identify patterns related to the vertices of the fraud triangle theory, providing more consistent and interpretable results for fraud detection. The model’s performance was evaluated by training with several datasets and testing it with another one that did not intervene in its training. The results showed efficient performance averages with a 7% increase in performance compared to a previous job. Overall, the study emphasizes the importance of deepening the analysis of fraud behaviors and proposing strategies to identify them proactively.

We report the first records of two mosquito species, Wyeomyia (Wyeomyia) abebela Dyar & Knab, 1908 and W. (Hystatomyia) coenonus Dyar & Knab, 1913, from the Choco Biosphere Reserve, a global biodiversity hotspot in Ecuador. We collected these mosquitoes in the Mashpi Lodge Reserve, a conserved natural area. Specimens were collected during their immature stages in bromeliads using a 375-ml absorber dropper. Our new data for W. abelela increases the geographical distribution of this species to include seven countries of America (Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Ecuador); W. coenonus is now known from two countries of America (Panama and Ecuador), and our records of W. abelela and W. coenonus are the first from South America.

Antecedentes: Las recomendaciones de esquemas para erradicar Helicobacter pylori se encuentran ampliamente dis- ponibles. Este es un patógeno de alta prioridad para búsqueda y desarrollo de nuevos y efectivos tratamientos.Objetivo: Descri- bir la respuesta terapéutica con terapia de rescate para infección por H. pylori, Hospital Escuela, Tegucigalpa, diciembre 2016-abril 2017. Métodos: Estudio descriptivo longitudinal retrospectivo en pacientes consecutivos con sintomatología gastrointestinal e in - fección conirmada porH. pylori. Mediante el registro del Servi - cio de Gastroenterología, Departamento de Medicina Interna, se identiicaron pacientes positivos porH. pylori. Se registraron datos sociodemográicos, clínicos y diagnósticos. El tratamiento de res- cate brindado fue, vía oral por 10 días: levoloxacina 500 mg/día, esomeprazol 40 mg dos veces/día, amoxicilina 1 gr dos veces/ día. La conirmación de la erradicación fue realizada 4-8 semanas postratamiento. Se registró información sobre la adherencia al tra- tamiento y los efectos secundarios.Resultados: Se analizaron 30 casos; 56.7% (17) pacientes nuevos y 43.3% (13) pacientes con al menos un fracaso. En el 16.0% (5) no hubo conirmación de erra - dicación; se obtuvo una tasa de erradicación del 72.0% (18/25), IC95% 50.6-87.9; siendo 78.5% (11/14) en pacientes nuevos ver - sus 63.6% (7/11) en fracasos previos, IC95% -9.6-54.0, p=0.318. Discusión: La tasa de erradicación en este grupo de pacientes no fue satisfactoria. Actualmente el tratamiento con levoloxacina es recomendado como terapia de segunda línea o de rescate en regiones con baja o alta resistencia a la claritromicina, aunque la resistencia a quinolonas ha aumentado en los últimos años en va- rios países.

INTRODUCCIÓN: Las zoonosis son enfermedades compartidas entre animales vertebrados y humanos. La secuencia de transmisión comienza con la exposición del humano a elementos infectivos en el ambiente. Muchas patologías mantienen su reservorio en la población canina. Según estudios previos en la región, un 47% de las muestras de heces caninas ambientales (HCA) recolectadas en plazas y paseos públicos contenían al menos una especie parasitaria. El objetivo del trabajo fue actualizar la frecuencia de aparición de parásitos de importancia zoonótica en HCA recogidas en plazas de dos barrios costeros de la ciudad de Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut) entre marzo y diciembre de 2018. MÉTODOS: Se realizó un estudio observacional, descriptivo y transversal en Caleta Córdova (BCC) y Stella Maris (BSM), donde se recolectaron por conglomerados en forma de guarda griega, aleatoria y sistemática, 156 muestras de HCA. RESULTADOS: Se concentraron y observaron muestras al microscopio, resultando positivas para parásitos 83%; 63% presentó más de un género parasitario. Se destacaron 15 géneros con capacidad para infectar al humano. Los parásitos más abundantes fueron Toxocara spp. y Blastocystis spp. en BCC y Toxocara spp. y Giardia spp. en BSM. En BCC se reportó Mesostephanus spp. por primera vez en Argentina. DISCUSIÓN: Es necesario dimensionar la contaminación ambiental por parásitos zoonóticos, a fin de implementar intervenciones de salud pública adecuadas a cada escenario y contexto epidemiológico.

Antecedentes: La hemorragia gastrointestinal oculta representa aproximadamente del 5%-10% del total de las hemorragias digestivas. Descripción del caso clínico: Paciente femenina de 62 años, procedente de Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Cortés, sin comorbilidades, con episodios intermitentes de melena de un año de evolución; evaluada y manejada con hierro parenteral y transfusiones sanguíneas. Se le realizó protocolo diagnóstico, sin encontrar origen del sangrado. Fue sometida a laparoscopía diagnóstica en junio del 2019, realizándole apendicectomía, resección yeyunal, colecistectomía y ooforectomía; cursando asintomática luego de la cirugía. En diciembre, reinicia con melena, 3-4 episodios diarios, abundante cantidad (aproximadamente 300 ml). Evaluada nuevamente sin lograr identificar el origen del sangrado, por lo cual se realizó vídeo capsula endoscópica que reportó, restos hemáticos sin observar sitio de sangrado. Se llevó a cabo enteroscopía de empuje y duodenoscopía observando sitio de sangrado cercano a la papila duodenal. Se decide realizar angiotomografía, la cual fue compatible con sangrado digestivo a nivel de la II y III porción del duodeno. Luego se efectúa arteriografía selectiva de vasos abdominales, evidenciando fuga de medio de contraste originada en la rama de la arteria hepática derecha de origen en la mesentérica superior. Finalmente se procedió a la aplicación de 2 hemoclip vía endoscópica obteniendo un resultado satisfactorio. Conclusiones: El tipo de lesión responsable de la hemorragia del intestino delgado depende de la edad del paciente. Los factores de riesgo de hemorragia recurrente por angioectasia incluyen el número de lesiones, la edad avanzada, comorbilidades y la terapia anticoagulante.

Introducción: La hoja de Erythroxylum coca, se utiliza tradicionalmente en diversos países por sus bondades farmacológicas. Objetivo: Comparar el efecto antibacteriano del extracto acuoso y alcohólico de hojas de Erythroxylum coca frente a Streptococcus mutans ATCC®35668™ y Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC®4356™. Métodos: Estudio experimental in vitro. Se obtuvo el extracto acuoso y alcohólico de E. coca. La muestra estuvo conformada por 20 placas petri para cada concentración y extracto evaluado. La media de los diámetros de los halos de inhibición, se expresaron en milímetros y se analizaron mediante la prueba de Kruskal-Wallis y el análisis post hoc de Dunn con ajuste de Bonferroni. La comparación de los efectos entre las 24 y 48 horas se realizó mediante el test Wilcoxon con un nivel de significancia del 5 %. Resultados: La concentración alcohólica de 25 mg/mL fue más efectiva sobre S. mutans, al compararla con los otros grupos (p

Introduction & objectives: Liver cirrhosis is a major cause of mortality worldwide. Adequate diagnosis and treatment of decompensating events requires of both medical skills and updated technical resources. The objectives of this study were to search the demographic profile of hospitalized cirrhotic patients in a group of Latin American hospitals and the availability of expertise/facilities for the diagnosis and therapy of decompensation episodes. Methods: A cross sectional, multicenter survey of hospitalized cirrhotic patients. Results: 377 patients, (62% males; 58 ± 11 years) (BMI > 25, 57%; diabetes 32%) were hospitalized at 65 centers (63 urbans; 57 academically affiliated) in 13 countries on the survey date. Main admission causes were ascites, gastrointestinal bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis/other infections. Most prevalent etiologies were alcohol-related (AR) (40%); non-alcoholic-steatohepatitis (NASH) (23%), hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) (7%) and autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) (6%). The most frequent concurrent etiologies were AR + NASH. Expertise and resources in every analyzed issue were highly available among participating centers, mostly accomplishing valid guidelines. However, availability of these facilities was significantly higher at institutions located in areas with population > 500,000 (n = 45) and in those having a higher complexity level (Gastrointestinal, Liver and Internal Medicine Departments at the same hospital (n = 22). Conclusions: The epidemiological etiologic profile in hospitalized, decompensated cirrhotic patients in Latin America is similar to main contemporary emergent agents worldwide. Medical and technical resources are highly available, mostly at great population urban areas and high complexity medical centers. Main diagnostic and therapeutic approaches accomplish current guidelines recommendations.

Peru is one of the megadiverse countries worldwide, displaying a great diversity of ecosystems due to its tropical location, marine currents, and complex relief, which jointly define environments differentiated by altitude and climatic conditions. The arid and semi-arid ecosystems comprising xeric and Andean shrublands, coastal deserts, and coastal hills, illustrate this diversity of ecosystems; these stretch over 177 358 km2, representing 13.8% of the Peruvian territory. Several studies on aquatic macroinvertebrates are being conducted in these ecosystems; although not so numerous yet, have shown a rise in recent years. The objective of this work was to determine the composition and distribution of aquatic macroinvertebrates in the arid and semi-arid ecosystems of Peru. To this end, we conducted a literature survey; the articles and theses found were reviewed and analyzed. The following keywords were used: macroinvertebrates, macrozoobenthos, bioindicators, diversity of aquatic organisms, and water quality; we used the Google Academic search engine, Scopus, Web of Science, ResearchGate and the thesis repositories of Peruvian universities, additionally a thesis from the University of Barcelona. Of a total of 53 sources of information, 38 are theses and 15 are scientific articles conducted from 1992 to 2020, referring to studies conducted at elevations ranging from 0 to 3,831 m asl. Most studies were conducted at the Lima and La Libertad departments, resulting in 20 and 10 publications, respectively. The topics addressed most frequently were bioindication, biodiversity, taxonomy, and distribution. Most theses were carried in the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo and the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, with 12 and 10 theses, respectively. The period 2011–2020 records the largest number of publications (40). According to the type of aquatic ecosystem, rivers (38) were the systems most intensively studied, followed by coastal wetlands (14) and lagoons (2); to note, one thesis studied two types of ecosystems. Specimens were collected mainly with the Surber and D nets; as a result, seven phyla, 10 classes, 39 orders, and 118 families were reported. The highest richness of families corresponds to rivers (110), followed by coastal wetlands (57), and lagoons (12). The western hydrographic slope recorded the highest richness at phylum, class, order, and family levels, likely because most investigations were conducted in this slope. On the other hand, the phyla Cnidaria, Nematoda, and Nematomorpha were not recorded in the eastern slope, which showed fewer orders (19) relative to the western slope (39). A similar trend is observed at the family level: of the 118 families recorded, 59 were reported for the eastern slope. The most common families at both sides were Chironomidae, Baetidae, Simuliidae, Elmidae, Hydrophilidae, Libellulidae, Physidae, Dytiscidae, Ceratopogonidae, Coenagrionidae, Hydroptilidae, Hydropsychidae, and Tipulidae. Separately, the most common families in all types of aquatic ecosystems were Chironomidae, Baetidae, and Dytiscidae. It is recommended to further promote studies on macroinvertebrates living in the eastern slope, addressing taxonomic, and ecological topics, as well as broadening the approach to an integral ecosystem view. Finally, the biotic indices should be calibrated and validated for the main hydrographic basins. This work is an initial effort to review, systematize, analyze, and gather the results of studies on aquatic macroinvertebrates in Peru, particularly in arid and semi-arid ecosystems.

Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) can influence lipid homeostasis and atherosclerosis progression. We aimed to assess the association of DPP4 gene polymorphisms with hypoalphalipoproteinemia and DPP4 serum levels, in a cohort of Mexican individuals. Five DPP4 polymorphisms (rs12617336, rs12617656, rs1558957, and rs3788979, and rs17574) were genotyped in 748 participants with and 745 without hypoalphalipoproteinemia. The associations were evaluated using logistic regression analyses. Under inheritance models adjusted for confounding variables, the rs12617336 (OR = 0.22, Pheterozygote = 0.001) and rs17574 (OR = 0.78, Padditive = 0.022; OR = 0.73, Pdominant = 0.012; OR = 0.73, Pheterozygote = 0.017; OR = 0.72, Pcodominant1 = 0.014) minor alleles were associated with a low risk of hypoalphalipoproteinemia. After the correction for multiple comparisons, the associations were marginal except the association of the rs12617336 that remaining significant. Additionally, both DPP4 minor alleles were associated with protection for the presence of insulin resistance (IR) (OR = 0.17, Pheterozygote = 0.019 for rs12617336 and OR = 0.75, Padditive = 0.049 for rs17574). The rs12617336 minor allele was also associated with a low risk of hyperinsulinemia (OR = 0.11, Pheterozygote = 0.006). Differences in DPP4 levels were observed in individuals with rs17574 genotypes, the rs17574 GG genotype individuals had the lowest levels. Our data suggest that rs12617336 and rs17574 DPP4 minor alleles could be envisaged as protective genetic markers for hypoalphalipoproteinemia, IR, and hyperinsulinemia. The rs17574 GG genotype was associated with the lowest DPP4 levels.

Fraud is increasingly common, and so are the losses caused by this phenomenon. There is, thus, an essential economic incentive to study this problem, particularly fraud prevention. One barrier complicating the research in this direction is the lack of public data sets that embed fraudulent activities. In addition, although efforts have been made to detect fraud using machine learning, such actions have not considered the component of human behavior when detecting fraud. We propose a mechanism to detect potential fraud by analyzing human behavior within a data set in this work. This approach combines a predefined topic model and a supervised classifier to generate an alert from the possible fraud-related text. Potential fraud would be detected based on a model built from such a classifier. As a result of this work, a synthetic fraud-related data set is made. Four topics associated with the vertices of the fraud triangle theory are unveiled when assessing different topic modeling techniques. After benchmarking topic modeling techniques and supervised and deep learning classifiers, we find that LDA, random forest, and CNN have the best performance in this scenario. The results of our work suggest that our approach is feasible in practice since several such models obtain an average AUC higher than 0.8. Namely, the fraud triangle theory combined with topic modeling and linear classifiers could provide a promising framework for predictive fraud analysis.

Fraud entails deception in order to obtain illegal gains; thus, it is mainly evidenced within financial institutions and is a matter of general interest. The problem is particularly complex, since perpetrators of fraud could belong to any position, from top managers to payroll employees. Fraud detection has traditionally been performed by auditors, who mainly employ manual techniques. These could take too long to process fraud-related evidence. Data mining, machine learning, and, as of recently, deep learning strategies are being used to automate this type of processing. Many related techniques have been developed to analyze, detect, and prevent fraud-related behavior, with the fraud triangle associated with the classic auditing model being one of the most important of these. This work aims to review current work related to fraud detection that uses the fraud triangle in addition to machine learning and deep learning techniques. We used the Kitchenham methodology to analyze the research works related to fraud detection from the last decade. This review provides evidence that fraud is an area of active investigation. Several works related to fraud detection using machine learning techniques were identified without the evidence that they incorporated the fraud triangle as a method for more efficient analysis.

Objectives. To assess the frequency and factors associated with parametrial involvement (PI) in patients with cervical cancer IB1 who underwent radical hysterectomy (RH) at the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases in Peru. Materials and methods. Cross-sectional study of 214 patients with cervical cancer IB1 undergoing RH with pelvic lymphadenectomy between 2007 and 2012. The population was compared with and without clinicopathological variables associated with PI such as age, tumor size, depth of infiltration, histological grade and pelvic lymph node involvement. Results. Ten patients (4.6%) had PI. Multivariate analysis showed that the depth of invasion (OR 8.37, 95% CI 1.24- 56.41, p=0.029) and pelvic node involvement (OR 18.03; 95% CI 3.30-98.44, p=0.001) were all independent predictors of PI. The presence of tumor size ≤ 2 cm, invasion ≤ 10 mm, absence of lymphovascular permeation and absence of nodal involvement identified 97 patients at low risk of PI, none of whom had PI pathology. Conclusions. We confirmed the low frequency of PI in the cervical cancer IB1 subgroup and its association with the depth of invasion and lymph node involvement suggested in previous studies. This information will allow the identification of a subgroup of patients at low risk of PI for less radical surgery in our institution.

Objetivos. Evaluar la frecuencia y factores asociados al compromiso parametrial (CP) en pacientes con cáncer de cérvix IB-1 sometidas a histerectomía radical (HR) en el Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas del Perú. Materiales y métodos. Estudio transversal analítico en 214 pacientes con cáncer de cérvix IB-1 sometidas a HR con linfadenectomía pélvica entre el 2007 y 2012. Se comparó la población con y sin CP según variables clinicopatológicas como edad, tamaño tumoral, profundidad de infi grado histológico y afectación ganglionar pélvica. Resultados. Diez pacientes (4,6%) presentaron CP. El análisis multivariable mostró que la profundidad de la invasión (OR 8,37, IC 95%: 1,24-56,41, p=0,029) y el compromiso de ganglios pélvicos (OR 18,03, IC 95%: 3,30-98,44, p=0,001) resultaron ser predictores independientes del CP. La presencia de tamaño tumoral ≤ 2 cm, invasión ≤ 10 mm, ausencia de permeación linfovascular y ausencia de compromiso ganglionar permitió identifi 97 pacientes de bajo riesgo de CP, de los cuales ninguno tuvo CP en patología. Conclusiones. Confi la baja frecuencia del CP en el subgrupo de cáncer de cervix IB-1 y su asociación con la profundidad de la invasión y con el compromiso ganglionar linfático sugeridos en estudios previos. Esta información permitirá identifi un subgrupo de pacientes con bajo riesgo de CP candidatas a una cirugía menos radical en nuestra institución

Objetivos. Evaluar la frecuencia y factores asociados al compromiso parametrial (CP) en pacientes con cáncer de cérvix IB-1 sometidas a histerectomía radical (HR) en el Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas del Perú. Materiales y métodos. Estudio transversal analítico en 214 pacientes con cáncer de cérvix IB-1 sometidas a HR con linfadenectomía pélvica entre el 2007 y 2012. Se comparó la población con y sin CP según variables clinicopatológicas como edad, tamaño tumoral, profundidad de infi grado histológico y afectación ganglionar pélvica. Resultados. Diez pacientes (4,6%) presentaron CP. El análisis multivariable mostró que la profundidad de la invasión (OR 8,37, IC 95%: 1,24-56,41, p=0,029) y el compromiso de ganglios pélvicos (OR 18,03, IC 95%: 3,30-98,44, p=0,001) resultaron ser predictores independientes del CP. La presencia de tamaño tumoral ≤ 2 cm, invasión ≤ 10 mm, ausencia de permeación linfovascular y ausencia de compromiso ganglionar permitió identifi 97 pacientes de bajo riesgo de CP, de los cuales ninguno tuvo CP en patología. Conclusiones. Confi la baja frecuencia del CP en el subgrupo de cáncer de cervix IB-1 y su asociación con la profundidad de la invasión y con el compromiso ganglionar linfático sugeridos en estudios previos. Esta información permitirá identifi un subgrupo de pacientes con bajo riesgo de CP candidatas a una cirugía menos radical en nuestra institución

El descubrimiento del sitio de Petroglifos Maloñehue 1 marca el inicio de una nueva etapa de investigacion emprendida por el Museo Regional de la Araucanía, en colaboración con el Departamento de Geografía de la Universidad de la Frontera.La necesidad de ampliar la investigación arqueológica en general, y del arte rupestre en particular, nos ha motivado a elegir el área de Lonquimay - alto Blo Blo como centro de nuestras investigaciones. En marzo de 1983 efectuamos el primer viaje exploratorio al lugar, logrando ubicar el sitio aqui descrito.

En los primeros dlas de enero de 1982, el obrero agrícola Ricardo Véjar informa al Museo Regional de la Araucanla, la existencia de una cueva que habla descubierto en la llamada quebrada "El Teatro", en el fundo "La Rinconada de Perquenco" (Provincia de Malleco-comuna de Galvarino) , de propiedad de la señora Olga Lazo vda, de Adán. El Museo se hizo presente en el sitio, observe que se trataba de un alero rocoso, se registraron sus caracterlsticas, ubicación, dimensiones y las condiciones que se ofreclan para una eventual excavación arqueológica.