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Abstract Background In vitro embryo production is a highly demanded reproductive technology in horses, which requires the recovery (in vivo or post-mortem) and in vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes. Oocytes subjected to IVM exhibit poor developmental competence compared to their in vivo counterparts, being this related to a suboptimal composition of commercial maturation media. The objective of this work was to study the effect of different concentrations of secretome obtained from equine preovulatory follicular fluid (FF) on cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) during IVM. COCs retrieved in vivo by ovum pick up (OPU) or post-mortem from a slaughterhouse (SLA) were subjected to IVM in the presence or absence of secretome (Control: 0 µg/ml, S20: 20 µg/ml or S40: 40 µg/ml). After IVM, the metabolome of the medium used for oocyte maturation prior (Pre-IVM) and after IVM (Post-IVM), COCs mRNA expression, and oocyte meiotic competence were analysed. Results IVM leads to lactic acid production and an acetic acid consumption in COCs obtained from OPU and SLA. However, glucose consumption after IVM was higher in COCs from OPU when S40 was added (Control Pre-IVM vs. S40 Post-IVM: 117.24 ± 7.72 vs. 82.69 ± 4.24; Mean µM ± SEM; p

Cognitive interventions that involve executive functions (EF)-demanding activities are effective in changing task-related brain activity in children from homes with low socioeconomic status (SES). However, less is known about the efficiency of EF-based interventions in modifying segregation and integration properties of the functional neural organization during a resting state. Further, the consideration of the initial cognitive performance in the design of interventions and its role in the outcome of cognitive training has been poorly studied. The present study aimed to examine the impact of two individualized cognitive interventions with EF-demanding activities on brain connectivity in preschoolers (n = 79) from low-SES homes in Argentina using complex network analysis. At baseline, participants were classified as high- or low-performers based on their performance in an inhibitory control task, and then they were assigned into intervention and control groups within each performance level. Before and after the intervention, the neural activity of each child was recorded at rest using a mobile electroencephalogram device. We found significant intervention-related changes in global efficiency, global strength, and the strength of long-range connections in the [theta] frequency band in the intervention low-performing group. These findings support the idea that patterns of processing crucial information in the brain may be modified in children from low-SES homes through an EF-based intervention. Finally, these findings show different intervention-related effects on neural activity between children with low and high initial cognitive performance and add new evidence about the interaction between individual characteristics and intervention approaches.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has set clear priorities in recent years to promote inclusion, diversity, access, and equity (IDA&E) in infectious disease (ID) clinical practice, medical education, and research. The IDSA IDA&E Task Force was launched in 2018 to ensure implementation of these principles. The IDSA Training Program Directors Committee met in 2021 and discussed IDA&E best practices as they pertain to the education of ID fellows. Committee members sought to develop specific goals and strategies related to recruitment, clinical training, didactics, and faculty development. This article represents a presentation of ideas brought forth at the meeting in those spheres and is meant to serve as a reference document for ID training program directors seeking guidance in this area.

El objetivo principal de este trabajo fue analizar el valor predictivo de las funciones ejecutivas en relación con los cambios en el rendimiento académico entre adolescentes de secundaria a partir de la autoevaluación y de la evaluación de los padres. El estudio consistió en una investigación cuantitativa no experimental, descriptivo-correlacional de 265 adolescentes de entre 12 y 17 años. Los y las estudiantes evaluaron sus propias funciones ejecutivas utilizando la Escala de Autorreporte de Funciones Ejecutivas, mientras que sus padres/tutores las evaluaron con la Escala Parental de Funciones Ejecutivas. El estatus socioeconómico se obtuvo mediante la Encuesta de Nivel Socioeconómico, y el rendimiento académico se obtuvo a partir de los boletines de calificaciones. Los resultados mostraron una correlación positiva entre el rendimiento académico y las funciones ejecutivas, percibidas tanto por los adolescentes como por los padres; así como entre el rendimiento académico y el estatus socioeconómico. Además, el rendimiento académico fue significativamente explicado por el estatus socioeconómico y las actividades relacionadas con la memoria de trabajo y la planificación, percibidas tanto por los adolescentes como por los padres. Basándose en estos resultados, el estudio concluye que los adolescentes son capaces de reflexionar sobre la eficacia de sus funciones ejecutivas de forma relevante para su rendimiento académico, y que los cuidadores pueden proporcionar información relevante sobre las funciones ejecutivas de sus hijos. Además, los resultados destacan la importancia del estatus socioeconómico a la hora de examinar la relación entre las funciones ejecutivas y el rendimiento académico.

The microbial compositions from concurrent peri-implant and periodontal lesions were compared, since the results reported in the literature on the etiological relationship between these oral pathologies are contradictory. Microbial compositions from nine patients were evaluated using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons and Principal Components Analysis. Comparisons between the use of curettes or paper points as collection methods and between bacterial composition in both pathologies were performed. Paper points allowed the recovery of a higher number of bacterial genera. A higher bacterial diversity was found in peri-implantitis compared to periodontal samples from the same patient, while a greater number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were present in the corresponding periodontal samples. A higher abundance of oral pathogens, such as Porphyromonas or Treponema, was found in peri-implantitis sites. The opposite trend was observed for Aggregatibacter abundance, which was higher in periodontal than in peri-implantitis lesions, suggesting that both oral pathologies could be considered different but related diseases. Although the analysis of a higher number of samples would be needed, the differences regarding the microbial composition provide a basis for further understating the pathogenesis of peri-implant infections.

El siguiente artículo de investigación tuvo como propósito analizar de qué forma el curso de Inglés técnico contribuiría en la formación del estudiante de la Escuela Profesional de Ingeniería de Minas de la Universidad Nacional de Moquegua, y si esta se incorporaría en el diseño curricular durante su preparación profesional y podría obtener mejor desempeño experto y comunicativo a nivel internacional. Este artículo tuvo como objetivo general determinar la relación que existe entre los estudiantes universitarios de la Escuela de Ingeniería de Minas y el dominio del idioma inglés comunicativo y técnico en el ámbito laboral a nivel nacional e internacional.

Introducción: el hematoma epidural espontáneo es una enfermedad poco habitual que puede acompañarse de compresión medular. Numerosas causas pueden ocasionarla, una es el mal control de los anticoagulantes orales. Información del paciente: paciente de 57 años de edad, femenina, con antecedentes de padecer insuficiencia de la válvula mitral, con tratamiento anticoagulante con warfarina, que fue llevada al Cuerpo de Guardia del Hospital “Arnaldo Milián Castro” por entumecimiento de ambos miembros inferiores; al examen físico se constató paraparesia asimétrica, reflejo osteotendinoso aquileano y rotuliano exaltados (+2), reflejo de Babinsky izquierdo y nivel sensitivo dorsal 6-7. Conclusiones: el hematoma epidural espinal es una enfermedad causante de compresión medular aguda que requiere diagnóstico inmediato y tratamiento quirúrgico urgente.

Introducción: la enfermedad de Hansen o lepra es una enfermedad infectocontagiosa de evolución crónica causada por un bacilo, el Mycobacterium leprae. La lepra neural pura, o primaria, se presenta como una neuropatía periférica sin presencia de lesiones cutáneas. Información del paciente: se presenta un hombre joven, de 19 años de edad, con historia de alteraciones sensitivas en ambas piernas de aproximadamente dos meses de evolución. Al examen físico se constató hipoestesia en parches en ambos miembros inferiores. Se estableció confirmación diagnóstica por biopsia del nervio sural. Se comenzó tratamiento antileproso y se logró mejoría clínica con pocas semanas de evolución. Conclusiones: el diagnóstico clínico es difícil y la enfermedad puede pasar desapercibida durante años, con daño neural cada vez con mayor discapacidad, por lo que se requiere de un enfoque clínico exhaustivo para lograr diagnósticos acertados. El manejo multidisciplinario mejora el pronóstico y la calidad de vida de los pacientes con esta enfermedad.

Women researchers have been shown to be underrepresented in science, especially among the most productive scholars. This is especially relevant in the social sciences and humanities fields, where gender parity is closer, but disparities among top scholars are still pronounced. The gender gap in the field of communication has been explored from several approaches, but studies focusing on gender differences in representation, citations, and h-index are rather scarce. Drawing upon data retrieved from SciVal, we conducted a comparative study of the top 500 and top 100 most productive scholars (N = 5000) for each of the ten most productive countries in communication research in the 2019–2022 period: the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Spain, Germany, India, Australia, Canada, Italy, and the Netherlands. The results indicate a consistent underrepresentation of women, particularly among the top 500, across countries. Despite women being cited more frequently than men in some countries over shorter time frames, a gender bias persists favoring men, particularly when considering the h-index. All in all, our study shows that, despite hints of gender equality in citation patterns, the gender gap still constitutes a structural part of the field of communication when addressing gender representation in research productivity and long-term dynamics of research impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The gender classification from names is crucial for uncovering a myriad of gender-related research questions. Traditionally, this has been automatically computed by gender detection tools (GDTs), which now face new industry players in the form of conversational bots like ChatGPT. This paper statistically tests the stability and performance of ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo and ChatGPT 4o for gender detection. It also compares two of the most used GDTs (Namsor and Gender-API) with ChatGPT using a dataset of 5,779 records compiled from previous studies for the most challenging variant, which is the gender inference from full name without providing any additional information. Results statistically show that ChatGPT is very stable presenting low standard deviation and tight confidence intervals for the same input, while it presents small differences in performance when prompt changes. ChatGPT slightly outperforms the other tools with an overall accuracy over 96%, although the difference is around 3% with both GDTs. When the probability returned by GDTs is factored in, differences get narrower and comparable in terms of inter-coder reliability and error coded. ChatGPT stands out in the reduced number of non-classifications (0% in most tests), which in combination with the other metrics analyzed, results in a solid alternative for gender inference. This paper contributes to current literature on gender detection classification from names by testing the stability and performance of the most used state-of-the-art AI tool, suggesting that the generative language model of ChatGPT provides a robust alternative to traditional gender application programming interfaces (APIs), yet GDTs (especially Namsor) should be considered for research-oriented purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]