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The English language teaching learning process in small classes may turn challenging for some teachers but also rewarding because of the results obtained. In our country, the majority of high schools have a big number of students in the English courses and this may be one of the causes for language low achievement. For this reason, this study is aimed at exploring teachers and students' perceptions on the benefits, strategies and resources, students' feelings, and the possible limitations the teaching and learning of English in small classes may yield to promote changes in the number of students in Ecuadorian English classrooms. The findings show that small classes help teachers design, apply activities, use strategies, and resources that make it easier for students to interact, participate, and receive appropriate feedback. Regarding students, they feel relaxed and motivated to learn English among few students; however, the fact that teachers' control of the small class allows them to address students more frequently, make students feel anxious.

This mixed-methods study investigated the use of supplementary materials by EFL teachers in Ecuadorian secondary schools. Via the use of teacher interviews (n = 12) it was found that teachers believe the use of supplementary materials increases the motivation of the students, which in-turn improves the learning possibilities of the students. The quantitative sample (n = 695) showed the students' preferences for supplementary materials and confirmed our results that the use of certain supplementary materials does in fact increase the motivation, understanding and participation of the students in their English language classes. Four variables were considered to do this research; motivation of students when any material was used, whether students' participation increased or not when using supplementary material, the third one focused on whether the students felt as though their understanding had increased in class as a result of the use of the material. The final variable aimed to measure whether the student felt their performance in class had improved as a result of the use of the material in question. The results showed that more dynamic and interactive classes are created when teachers use any supplementary material.

Objetivo: Avaliar o efeito de atividades de vivência corporal na capacidade funcional de portadores de doença de Parkinson. Método: Pesquisa convergente-assistencial testando a intervenção, uma tecnologia de saúde, em 17 pacientes com doença de Parkinson, sendo 8 em Florianópolis, SC, e 9 em Jequié, BA. Esses grupos foram submetidos a vivências corporais constituídas de exercícios de alongamento, resistência muscular localizada, coordenação, flexibilidade, agilidade e equilíbrio, adotando modalidades diversificadas de dança, recreação e outros recursos motivadores adaptados, com duração de uma hora, duas vezes por semana. Para sua avaliação, adotou-se a bateria de testes de campo de mensuração da capacidade funcional da American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). A bateria inclui cinco testes de: força e resistência muscular; coordenação; flexibilidade de tronco e pernas; equilíbrio e agilidade e resistência aeróbia. Resultados: Todas as médias das variáveis analisadas melhoraram em ambos os grupos, do pré-teste para o pós-teste, com destaque na diferença estatisticamente significante nas variáveis de força (p = 0,04) e de agilidade/equilíbrio (p = 0,05) entre os pacientes de Jequié. Observou-se que entre os pacientes de Jequié a melhoria nas médias de todas as variáveis foi mais pronunciada quando comparada a dos pacientes de Florianópolis. Conclusão: A intervenção da vivência corporal adotada parece ter efeito favorável na capacidade funcional de portadores da doença de Parkinson, mantendo o funcionamento de seus músculos, ossos e articulações em bom estado e independência para as atividades da vida diária, mesmo não modificando a progressão da doença.

Abstract Introduction Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) in children under one year of age. In high-income countries, RSV infections cause a significant overload of care every winter, imposing a significant burden to the healthcare system, which has made the development of prevention strategies a major global health priority. In this context, a new bivalent RSV prefusion F protein-based vaccine (RSVpreF) has recently been approved. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of vaccinating pregnant women with the RSVpreF vaccine to prevent RSV in infants from the Spanish National Healthcare System (NHS) perspective. Methods A hypothetical cohort framework and a Markov-type process were used to estimate clinical outcomes, costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALY) and cost-per-QALY gained (willingness-to-pay threshold: €25,000/QALY) for newborn infants born to RSV-vaccinated versus unvaccinated mothers over an RSV season. The base case analysis was performed from the NHS perspective including direct costs (€2023) and applying a discount of 3% to future costs and outcomes. To evaluate the robustness of the model, several scenarios, and deterministic and probabilistic analyses were carried out. All the parameters and assumptions were validated by a panel of experts. Results The results of the study showed that year-round maternal vaccination program with 70% coverage is a dominant option compared to no intervention, resulting in direct cost savings of €1.8 million each year, with an increase of 551 QALYs. Maternal vaccination could prevent 38% of hospital admissions, 23% of emergency room visits, 19% of primary care visits, and 34% of deaths due to RSV. All scenario analyses showed consistent results, and according to the probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA), the probability of maternal vaccination being cost-effective versus no intervention was 99%. Conclusions From the Spanish NHS perspective, maternal vaccination with bivalent RSVpreF is a dominant alternative compared with a non-prevention strategy.

Purpose: To evaluate the quality of life (QoL) and physical functioning of patients with diabetic foot (DF) and their associated factors. Methods: 120 participants with DF were recruited in 5 diabetic foot clinics in Dominican Republic. QoL and physical function were measured with the SF-36 and FAAM questionnaires respectively. Multiple linear regression models were used to determine the factors associated with each of the SF-36 and FAAM dimensions. Results: The median scores for the SF-36's dimensions were: physical functioning 30 (Interquartile range [IQR]: 40), role limitations due to physical health 0 (IQR: 25), role limitations due to emotional problems 100 (IQR: 100), vitality 55 (IQR: 30), mental health 55 (IQR: 24), social functioning 50 (IQR: 50), bodily pain 45 (IQR: 47.5), general health 50 (IQR: 30). Median scores for the FAAM's activities of daily living and sports dimensions were 39.3 (IQR: 25.7) and 28.6 (IQR: 28.6) respectively. After multiple linear regression analysis, factors associated with lower SF-36 scores were advanced Wagner grade, smoking, unemployment, female sex, time to treatment, comorbidities and microvascular complications. Factors associated to lower FAAM scores were Wagner grade and living alone. Conclusion: Patients with DF have poor QoL and physical function, with Wagner grade being the main associated factor. Attention should be given to prevention and opportune treatment. Studies that evaluate the impact of preventive and chronic disease management programs for DF are needed.

Abstract Background The objective of the present study was to evaluate the reliability of an augmented reality drilling approach and a freehand drilling technique for the autotransplantation of single-rooted teeth. Materials and methods Forty samples were assigned to the following surgical techniques for drilling guidance of the artificial sockets: A. augmented reality technique (AR) (n = 20) and B. conventional free-hand technique (FT) (n = 20). Then, two models with 10 teeth each were submitted to a preoperative cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan and a digital impression by a 3D intraoral scan. Afterwards, the autotrasplanted teeth were planned in a 3D dental implant planning software and transferred to the augmented reality device. Then, a postoperative CBCT scan was performed. Data sets from postoperative CBCT scans were aligned to the planning in the 3D implant planning software to analize the coronal, apical and angular deviations. Student’s t-test and Mann–Whitney non-parametric statistical analysis were used to analyze the results. Results No statistically significant differences were shown at coronal (p = 0.123) and angular (p = 0.340) level; however, apical deviations between AR and FT study groups (p = 0.008) were statistically significant different. Conclusion The augmented reality appliance provides higher accuracy in the positioning of single-root autotransplanted teeth compared to the conventional free-hand technique.

Polyxylic columnar stems covered by persistent leaf bases and found in sediments assignable to the Upper Cretaceous of Bajo de Santa Rosa, Rio Negro Province, Argentina, are described as two new generic entities in the Cycadales. Anatomical characters are the basis for their being assigned to the Encephalartoideae of the Zamiaceae. Brunoa santarrosensis gen. et sp. nov. is characterized by the presence of polyxyly, cone domes, mucilage cavities, and uniseriate to triseriate araucaroid, scalariform, or bordered intervascular pitting. Worsdellia bonettiae gen. et sp. nov. has polyxyly, anastomosing medullary vascular bundles, centripetal xylem, mucilage canals, and concentric extraxylary bundles. Some characters (polyxyly, medullary vascular bundles, and cone domes) were used to determine the systematic position, while other characters (mucilage reservoirs and centripetal xylem) were used to establish the relationship between polyxylic and monoxylic forms., I. Abstract II. Introduction III. Locality, Materials, and Methods IV. Systematics V. Discussion VI. Conclusions VII. Literature Cited II. Introduction Cycadales are the most primitive order within gymnosperms with extant [...]

La ejecución de la política pública de infancia en Chile encuentra sus directrices en el modelo de la Nueva Gestión Pública. Los sistemas de gestión y control atraviesan el trabajo de intervención a la infancia vulnerada, ocasionando alta intensificación y tensión en la ética del trabajo. En este artículo analizamos discursivamente cómo las/os trabajadoras/es construyen el sentido del trabajo público en infancia, mostrando las tensiones que emergen en su relación con la política y sus instrumentos. Los resultados, con base en 16 entrevistas, evidenciaron tres repertorios dominantes: entre el trabajador managerializado y el trabajador frustrado; el trabajador superhéroe; y lo colectivo como un refugio y sustentación del engranaje managerial. Para disputar la ética de lo público, las/os participantes relevan la urgencia de reorientar las políticas en infancia por sobre indicadores, metas y estándares de desempeño, validando los sistemas de trabajo situado y colaborativo como una voz organizada que no puede estar ausente en su diseño.

The need to explore contemporary alternatives for industrial production has driven the development of innovative techniques that address critical limitations linked to traditional batch mechanochemistry. One particularly promising strategy involves the integration of flow processes with mechanochemistry. Three noteworthy technologies in this domain are single-screw extrusion (SSE) and twin-screw extrusion (TSE) and Impact (Induction) in Continuous-flow Heated Mechanochemistry (ICHeM). These technologies go beyond the industrial production of polymers, extending to the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients, the fabrication of (nano)materials, and the extraction of high-added value products through the valorisation of biomass and waste materials. In accordance with the principles of green chemistry, ball milling processes are generally considered greener compared to conventional solvothermal processes. In fact, ball milling processes require less solvent, enhance reaction rates and reaction conversion by increasing surface area and substituting thermal energy with mechanochemical energy, among others. Special attention will be given to the types of products, reactants, size of the milling balls and reaction conditions, selecting 60 articles after applying a screening methodology during the period 2020–2022. This paper aims to compile and analyze the cutting edge of research in utilizing mechanochemistry for green chemistry applications.

Introduction: Sexual violence (SV) is frequent in universities, and a link has been demonstrated between SV and toxic substance use by university students in leisure settings. In Spain there is little scientific evidence in this regard, and SV prevention programmes are practically non-existent in Spanish universities. Objectives: To develop, implement, and evaluate an educational awareness-raising intervention regarding SV aimed at empowering university students to develop healthy affective-sexual relationships. Methods: Participatory action research intervention, implemented with a convenience sample of students recruited in a public university and qualitatively evaluated using a phenomenological approach. Results: The sample was composed of 22 women students, whose discourse revealed that SV acts are normalized in university leisure settings featured by the consumption of alcohol and other drugs. Post-intervention, the participants showed an increased understanding of SV, a heightened awareness of SV, and a greater capacity to identify SV acts. The intervention empowered the participants in terms of coping with SV situations and in raising awareness in their own social circles. Conclusions: The intervention changed the participants' attitudes and behaviours regarding SV, empowering them not only regarding their own affective-sexual relationships, but also in censoring attitudes and behaviours that foster SV, and in transmitting their acquired knowledge of SV in their social circles. Post-intervention, the participants considered themselves to be agents of social change in their environment and in terms of healthy affective-sexual relationships. Public contribution: University students participated in and evaluated an intervention that trained them to identify and to censor attitudes and behaviours that promote SV, empowered them as engines of social change, and showed them how to foster healthy affective-sexual relationships.

Resumen: La medicina familiar y comunitaria reúne buena parte de los elementos y valores que caracterizan la profesión de médico. Esto hace que pueda aportar unos fundamentos sólidos, útiles y duraderos al estudiante de Medicina sea cual sea la especialidad que elija en un futuro. Es necesario formar a profesionales capaces de ver al paciente desde un punto de vista holístico en su contexto personal y social, así como comprender los factores determinantes de la salud individual y comunitaria. Que comprendan al paciente y su sufrimiento, y que empaticen, para acompañarle durante su proceso de enfermedad. También se nos plantea el reto de situar a la atención primaria en el centro del sistema sanitario y hacer frente a una demanda creciente de médicos especialistas en Medicina Familiar y Comunitaria.Para la consecución de estos objetivos se hace estrictamente necesaria la integración de la Atención Primaria en los planes de estudios de las universidades, con intervención de médicos de familia en diferentes asignaturas, aportando una visión más transversal y holística en el abordaje de las distintas enfermedades y con más presencia en las actividades docentes y en las prácticas.El modelo propuesto por la Universidad Pompeu Fabra se inspira en la metodología de la mentoría en la que al estudiante se le asignará un médico de familia como mentor durante toda su formación de grado, y este le acompañará en sus estancias en el centro de atención primaria y en actividades relacionadas con diferentes asignaturas y velará por el cumplimiento de los objetivos de formación. También participará en su evaluación al finalizar cada curso. Este modelo pretende mejorar la calidad de las actividades vinculadas a la asistencia clínica y de las prácticas, y facilitará el conocimiento de la atención primaria y de la profesión de médico a través del contacto precoz y mantenido con la atención primaria. Abstract: Family and community medicine brings together many of the elements and values that characterize the medical practice. This means that it can provide solid, useful and lasting foundations to the medical student, whatever specialty they choose in the future. It is necessary to train professionals capable of seeing the patient from a holistic point of view in their personal and social context, as well as understanding the determining factors of individual and community health. And also understanding the patient and their suffering, and that they empathize, to accompany them during their illness process. We are also faced with the challenge of placing Primary Care at the center of the health system and facing a growing demand for doctors specializing in Family and Community Medicine.To achieve these objectives, it is strictly necessary to integrate Primary Care into the university curricula, with the intervention of family doctors in different subjects, providing a more transversal and holistic vision in the approach to different pathologies and with more presence in teaching activities and practices.The model proposed by the Pompeu Fabra University is inspired by the mentoring methodology in which the student will be assigned a family doctor as a mentor throughout their undergraduate training, and this will accompany them during their stays at the Primary Care center and in activities related to different subjects and will ensure compliance with the training objectives. They will also participate in evaluation at the end of each course. This model aims to improve the quality of activities linked to clinical care and practices, and will facilitate knowledge of Primary Care and the profession of physician with an early and maintained contact with Primary Care.

Annotated corpora are indispensable tools to train computational models in Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing. However, manual annotation is a costly, arduous, and time-consuming task, especially when the annotation is semantically complex. To address the problem, this work applies a methodology for semi-automatic annotation of datasets based on the Human-in-the-Loop paradigm. The methodology supports the building of a resource, that benefits from a fine-grained annotation, to aid in the detection of Spanish violent messages sourced from social media (Twitter/X). After implementing the proposed methodology for semi-automatic violence annotation, a high quality resource was obtained (hereafter referred to as VILLANOS). The methodology consists of annotating the dataset incrementally, which delivers an increase in annotator efficiency, thereby validating the suitability of the proposal. Annotation time was reduced by 52% compared to manual annotation and performance, by training a model with the VILLANOS dataset, obtains an $F_{1}$ of 85.2%. These results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the methodology, evidencing its validity.

RESUMO Uma reflexão a respeito da internação compulsória de usuários adultos de crack, à luz da abordagem da bioética da proteção revela que a política de atenção aos usuários de crack deve ter como escopo as políticas sociais, ao invés da centralidade dos recursos médicos, uma vez que grande parte das questões associadas ao consumo não se encontra nesse âmbito, mas entrelaçadas às questões sociais, educacionais e jurídicas. Desta maneira, acionar políticas emergenciais pautadas na internação involuntária provoca a retomada de modelos de intervenção amplamente criticados por profissionais da área da saúde, por pesquisadores da área de ciências humanas e sociais, perpetuando um retrocesso.

Packaging is lately identified as one of the biggest environmental problems and is at a focus of the scientific community and the industry aiming at minimizing environmental impacts. One of the most applied eco-design measures is to substitute traditional packaging materials with bio-based materials. One of the driving incentives for the packaging industry is the calculation of biogenic carbon (BC), even though there is no unified method for the calculation of credits from carbon sequestration.We developed a case study of paper-based packaging and tested the two variables important in the circular economy: (i) material, by modeling three different end-of-life scenarios; (ii) and time, by assessing the importance of this variable using bottom-up and top-down calculations.The results of the case study showed that credits from carbon sequestration could lead to undesirable linear pathways of the EoL, by giving the biggest credits for landfilling and, thus, contradicting the circularity principles. Moreover, the time variable is critical for the calculation of biogenic carbon. Credits for carbon sequestration for short-lived products can lead to an overestimation of the storing impact because the top-down calculus of national inventories, developed based on the UNFCCC method, cannot register carbon savings.This short communication indicates that we need to invest in additional research to identify the correct way to calculate the carbon credits when using bio-based materials and to improve the practice for calculations of the overall carbon footprint of the short-lived materials in the technosphere.

Sustainable packaging is a crucial focus in the context of circular economy efforts. This study evaluates the circularity of two secondary packaging systems used in Spanish fresh food produces: Reusable Plastic Crates and Single-use Cardboard Boxes. A Mass Flow Analysis was performed to assess the material flows in the production and use phases of both systems and two circular indicators were applied: the Material Circularity Indicator and Product Circular Indicator. While most previous studies for single-use packaging use these indicators at the product level, this study applies a system approach since the Reusable Plastic Crates can be reused 100 times. The functional unit was defined as the distribution of 1000 tonnes of fresh products, resulting in the distribution of 6,666,700 packages with 15 kg of products. The Material Circularity Indicator and Product Circular Indicator results show that Reusable Plastic Crates are more circular than Single-use Cardboard Boxes. The Product Circular Indicator provides a more comprehensive assessment of circularity by considering multiple life cycle stages, efficiency, and unrecoverable waste, resulting in a difference in circularity evaluations. The indicators used have limitations as they do not consider the resource stock. Further research is needed to explore this aspect.

An increase in invasive group A Streptococcus infection was detected in the northeast of Spain in November 2022. A postpandemic decline in the diversity of circulating emm types involved in invasive group A Streptococcus was observed, along with the emergence of emm49 in this geographic area.

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo analizar el comportamiento del consumo de hidrocarburos en relación a la curva ambiental de Kuznets y el deterioro ambiental, durante los últimos años. Los datos revisados determinan que aún con la pandemia la contaminación persistió por el incremento desmedido en la demanda de bienes, al igual que el crecimiento de las grandes comercializadoras de productos de primera necesidad. Las fuentes de información utilizadas para el análisis fueron las variables, tanto emisiones de hidrocarburos como el Producto interno bruto (PIB), es decir, un comparativo entre crecimiento y desarrollo, al igual que la incidencia de los modelos económicos como punto de partida relación-crecimiento del PIB por consumo de hidrocarburos, influencia sobre el comportamiento de las variables con respecto a los ingresos, y de manera puntual la incidencia de la clase social con mayores recursos económicos. Es así que la curva ambiental destaca la inequidad existente marcada de forma más profunda durante la pandemia.

Summary: Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa healthcare-associated infections are one of the top antimicrobial resistance threats world-wide. In order to analyze the current trends, we performed a Spanish nation-wide high-resolution analysis of the susceptibility profiles, the genomic epidemiology and the resistome of P. aeruginosa over a five-year time lapse. Methods: A total of 3.180 nonduplicated P. aeruginosa clinical isolates from two Spanish nation-wide surveys performed in October 2017 and 2022 were analyzed. MICs of 13 antipseudomonals were determined by ISO-EUCAST. Multidrug resistance (MDR)/extensively drug resistance (XDR)/difficult to treat resistance (DTR)/pandrug resistance (PDR) profiles were defined following established criteria. All XDR/DTR isolates were subjected to whole genome sequencing (WGS). Findings: A decrease in resistance to all tested antibiotics, including older and newer antimicrobials, was observed in 2022 vs 2017. Likewise, a major reduction of XDR (15.2% vs 5.9%) and DTR (4.2 vs 2.1%) profiles was evidenced, and even more patent among ICU isolates [XDR (26.0% vs 6.0%) and DTR (8.9% vs 2.6%)] (p

Misleading headlines are part of the disinformation problem. Headlines should give a concise summary of the news story helping the reader to decide whether to read the body text of the article, which is why headline accuracy is a crucial element of a news story. This work focuses on detecting misleading headlines through the automatic identification of contradiction between the headline and body text of a news item. When the contradiction is detected, the reader is alerted to the lack of precision or trustworthiness of the headline in relation to the body text. To facilitate the automatic detection of misleading headlines, a new Spanish dataset is created (ES_Headline_Contradiction) for the purpose of identifying contradictory information between a headline and its body text. This dataset annotates the semantic relationship between headlines and body text by categorising the relation between texts as compatible, contradictory and unrelated. Furthermore, another novel aspect of this dataset is that it distinguishes between different types of contradictions, thereby enabling a more fine-grain identification of them. The dataset was built via a novel semi-automatic methodology, which resulted in a more cost-efficient development process. The results of the experiments show that pre-trained language models can be fine-tuned with this dataset, producing very encouraging results for detecting incongruency or non-relation between headline and body text.

Dadas las características de sus labores, los trabajadores portuarios se encuentran expuestos a riesgos psicosociales los que pueden repercutir en su salud mental. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue el de examinar la evidencia científica sobre los riesgos psicosociales y la salud mental en trabajadores portuarios a nivel mundial. Se utilizó la propuesta metodológica de Arksey & O'Malley (2005) para una revisión sistemática exploratoria de cinco etapas. Se realizó una búsqueda exhaustiva en las bases de datos Scielo, SCOPUS, WOS la que arrojó, de acuerdo con los criterios de exclusión e inclusión, 7 artículos sobre riesgos psicosociales y salud mental de los trabajadores portuarios. En cuanto a los resultados se puede señalar que el 71.4% de los artículos usaron una metodología cuantitativa y el resto utilizó una metodología mixta. No se encontraron estudios cualitativos en esta revisión. En cuanto a las prevalencias de salud mental, tres investigaciones que trataron la temática coincidieron en cuanto a los altos porcentajes de episodios depresivos. Las investigaciones encontradas abordaron la salud mental dentro de una evaluación general de salud, no como tema central de estudio. Asimismo, sobre los riesgos psicosociales se identificaron altas prevalencias de carga de trabajo, consumo de sustancias, jobstrain, agotamiento laboral y emocional, ambiente hostil y sobrecarga de trabajo. En consideración a la baja cantidad de artículos encontrados, se puede concluir que se demuestra la necesidad de realizar investigaciones sobre riesgos psicosociales y salud mental en trabajadores portuarios con el objeto de aportar conocimiento al área.