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Objective.: To estimate the impact of a school-based nutritional and healthy lifestyle intervention to increase the proportions of adolescents free of components of the metabolic syndrome., Materials and Methods.: We conducted a pre-experimental study in a representative sample of adolescents from two schools in a high Andean district of Peru (Cajamarca city); 388 students completed the intervention and the baseline and post-intervention measurement. The intervention had nine thematic modules; each module was developed in an educational session of 45 minutes every two weeks. We used the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel and Adult Treatment Panel III criteria for metabolic syndrome. We used paired proportions comparison (McNemar test) to determine the impact of the intervention., Results.: At baseline, 20.4% (95% CI: 16.2 to 24.5) students had no metabolic syndrome components, post-intervention this proportion increased to 32,5% (95% CI: 27.7 to 37.3), the difference in proportions was 12.1% (95% CI: 7.5 to 16.8; p<0.001). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 4.6% (95% CI: 2.4 to 6.9) at baseline, while post-intervention was 2.3% (95%CI: 0.7 to 3.9). During the analysis of components, the greatest reduction was observed in the proportion of hypertriglyceridemia (difference in proportions: 21.9%, 95%CI: 16.9 to 26.9, p <0.001); we also found a significant reduction in arterial hypertension (difference in proportions: 3.1%, 95% CI: 0.6 to 5.6, p=0.025). In the other components, there were no significant differences., Conclusions.: The school-based intervention increased in 59.3% the proportion of students free of any component of the metabolic syndrome.

The coexistence of ecologically similar species may occur because of resources distribution, such as prey and habitat type and segregation time, that minimizes the interspecific competition. The changes brought about by Hurricane Isidore in the distribution of food resources by three coexisting fish species of the family Tetraodontidae (Sphoeroides nephelus, S. spengleri and S testudineus), were analyzed at the Carbonera Inlet. Sphoeroides spp. based their food on benthic organisms; principally, they consume mussels (Brachidontes sp.), barnacles (Balanus sp.) and gastropods (Crepidula sp). Before hurricane impact, the three species share the available food resources in different proportions (bivalves, gastropods, barnacles and decapods), according to different strategies that enabled them to coexist and reduce interspecific competition. After the impact, the abundance of available prey decreased and the interespecific competition for food increased, leading to S. testudines and S. nephelus change their trophic spectrum (xiphosurans, amphipods, isopods and detritus) and displacing S. splengleri of the inlet. The distribution of food resources was conditioned by the abundance and diversity of prey, as well as the adaptive response of each species.