Central University of Ecuador

About: Central University of Ecuador is a education organization based out in Quito, Ecuador. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 2220 authors who have published 1910 publications receiving 15052 citations.

Preeclampsia: Vascular Pathophysiological Mechanism and the Basis for Early Diagnosis and Treatment

Abstract: Hypertensive disease of pregnancy, postpartum hemorrhage and infectious syndromes in pregnancy and puerperium are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality for pregnant women around the world.1 Their frequency varies according to the country and accessibility to health care.1Hypertensive diseases, including preeclampsia, complicate 2–10% of all pregnancies.1–3 In Latin America and the Caribbean, hypertensive disorders are responsible for at least 26% of maternal deaths.3 Preeclampsia is a multifactorial disease caused by environmental factors that act over a genetic base, permitting the occurrence of this disorder.4–12 Based on this premise, the risk factors considered for the development of this disease are: overweightness; obesity; nulliparity and multiparity; being at the extremes of reproductive life; vascular diseases, such as chronic hypertension; metabolic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus; collagen diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus; multiple pregnancies; maternal and paternal family history12–14 (paternal imprinting expressed in the mother); pregnancy by assisted reproductive techniques;12 micropolycystic ovary syndrome with insulin resistance;15 severe anemia;16 antiphospholipid syndrome;17 and low-calcium diets consumed by people living at high altitudes.18,19 The interaction of risk factors and multiple polymorphic genes induces the synthesis of several proteins with effects differing from their original function, leading to the impairment of placental perfusion and the consequent production of mediators that damage the endothelium. The main proteins and others factors involved are listed below.7,8,20 Group I – vasoactive and vascular remodeling proteins: nitric oxide synthase; renin; type I and II angiotensin receptors; angiotensin converting enzyme; polycarboxypeptidase; endothelin-1; alpha and beta estrogen receptors; endoglin; tyrosine-kinase fms-like receptor-1; placental growth factor; and vascular endothelial growth factor.20 Group II – thrombophilia and hypofibrinolysis: methyltetrahydrofolate reductase; Leiden Factor V; prothrombin; fetal thrombophilia; plasminogen activator inhibitor-1; B3 integrin; and glycoprotein IIIA.20 Group III – oxidative stress, lipid metabolism, endothelial injury: epoxide hydrolase; glutathione transferase; superoxide dismutase; cytochrome P450 1A1; lipoprotein lipase; apolipoprotein E; and long-chain 3-hydroxyacylCoA dehydrogenase.20 Group IV – immunogenetic: human leukocyte antigen; interleukins 1 and 10; and tumor necrosis factor.20 Physiologically, in order to promote vascular remodeling, the changes of the decidua also occur in the inner area of the myometrium.21 An interaction of trophoblastic human leukocyte antigen (HLA) C, HLA-E, HLA-G with natural killer cells or dendritic cells or both is necessary for this event to occur. The presence of certain combinations of HLA-C and isoform types of immunoglobulin receptors bound to natural killer cells predispose to preeclampsia.22–25 The intervillous blood flow seems to begin by the 7th to 8th week of pregnancy, by connections between spiral arteries and lakes formed in the wall of the implanted blastocyst.26 A tamponade is formed early by the trophoblast that protects the embryo from high oxygen concentrations. Editorial

Harvesting opinions in Twitter for sentiment analysis

Abstract: Sentiment analysis is a very popular technique for social network analysis. One of the most popular social networks for microblogging that has a great growth is Twitter, which allows people to express their opinions using short, simple sentences. These texts are generated daily, and for this reason it is common for people to want to know which are the trending topics and their drifts. In this paper we propose to deploy a mobile app that provides information focusing on areas, such as, Politics, Social, Tourism, and Marketing using a statistical lexicon approach. The application shows the polarity of each theme as positive, negative, or neutral.

Diagnosis of amphimeriasis by LAMPhimerus assay in human stool samples long-Term storage onto filter paper

Abstract: Amphimeriasis, a fish-borne zoonotic disease caused by the liver fluke Amphimerus spp., has recently been reported as an emerging disease affecting an indigenous Ameridian group, the Chachi, living in Ecuador. The only method for diagnosing amphimeriasis was the microscopic detection of eggs from the parasite in patients' stool samples with very low sensitivity. Our group developed an ELISA technique for detection of anti-Amphimerus IgG in human sera and a molecular method based on LAMP technology (named LAMPhimerus) for specific and sensitive parasite DNA detection. The LAMPhimerus method showed to be much more sensitive than classical parasitological methods for amphimeriasis diagnosis using human stool samples for analysis. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of using dried stool samples on filter paper as source of DNA in combination with the effectiveness of our previously designed LAMPhimerus assay for successfully Amphimerus sp. detection in clinical stool samples. A total of 102 untreated and undiluted stool samples collected from Chachi population were spread as thin layer onto common filter paper for easily transportation to our laboratory and stored at room temperature for one year until DNA extraction. When LAMPhimerus method was applied for Amphimerus sp. DNA detection, a higher number of positive results was detected (61/102; 59.80%) in comparison to parasitological methods (38/102; 37.25%), including 28/61 (45.90%) microscopy-confirmed Amphimerus sp. infections. The diagnostic parameters for the sensitivity and specificity werecalculated for our LAMPhimerus assay, which were 79.17% and 65.98%, respectively. We demonstrate, for the first time, that common filter paper is useful for easy collection and long-term storage of human stool samples for later DNA extraction and molecular analysis of human-parasitic trematode eggs. This simple, economic and easily handling method combined with the specific and sensible LAMPhimerus assay has the potential to beused as an effective molecular large-scale screening test for amphimeriasis-endemic areas.

El reto de la planificación estratégica en las Pymes

Abstract: El articulo se propuso realizar una investigacion de tipo documental y exploratorio para caracterizar los resultados reportados en la literatura sobre las dificultades que conlleva el desarrollo de la planificacion estrategica para las Pymes. Se recopilaron los articulos que contuvieran el termino “Pymes” en su titulo, en la base de Datos de Scopus. De acuerdo con ello se obtuvieron un total de 130 publicaciones que sirvieron para el analisis de contenidos de acuerdo con los objetivos de esta contribucion. La busqueda de referencias se realizo tambien en Google Academico en relacion con los terminos “planificacion estrategica y pymes” ello permitio recopilar 14 referencias que estaban relacionadas con el objetivo de este articulo. Los resultados de la revision realizada en Scopus para el periodo 1998 al 2016 demostraron la tendencia creciente a la publicacion de articulos cientificos sobre el tema Pymes, la mayoria de los articulos se concentro bien en revistas espanolas, colombinas o mexicanas y de los temas reportados se destacan los relacionados con los problemas de financiacion de Pymes y con la implementacion de las Tecnologias de la Informacion y la Comunicacion en diversos tipos de Pymes. A partir de los senalamientos reportados en la literatura se pudo concluir que los factores fundamentales que diferencian el proceso de planificacion estrategica en las Pymes son: la falta de procedimientos formales de planeacion estrategica como los prescripto por las escuelas tradicionales, la forma especifica en que operan las Pymes en base a decisiones y proyectos especificos, sobre los cuales van definiendo una trayectoria de largo plazo que combina etapas de estabilidad y cambio y la calidad de los recursos humanos con que cuentan las Pymes en que puede existir un divorcio entre la formacion y las necesidades del mercado laboral.

Gestión de la confianza en Gimnasios deportivos (Trust management in Sports Gyms)

Abstract: El objetivo de la investigacion fue analizar la gestion de la confianza de los clientes que asisten a los gimnasios en el Departamento de Sucre, Colombia. El estudio se compone de unidades de muestreo: emprendedores y clientes. La muestra de emprendedores de gimnasios esta formada por 147 individuos que constituyen la poblacion total, mientras que los clientes son 2680 con un nivel de confianza del 95%. El alcance del muestreo estuvo comprendido en el Departamento de Sucre, Colombia, considerados zonas rurales. Los cuestionarios aplicados permiten el analisis correspondiente de los indicadores vinculados con la variable confianza individual de los emprendedores de los gimnasios con respecto a sus proveedores, clientes y competidores. Para el analisis y procesamientos de datos se aplico el analisis factorial a traves del SPSS 21.0, estableciendo el criterio de dimensionalidad y analizando las matrices de correlacion de Pearson y Lisrel para ecuaciones estructurales. Como principales resultados se obtuvieron que las relaciones entre clientes y emprendedores de los gimnasios requieren de confianza y esta determinada por la percepcion de ambos hacia el servicio. Abstract: The objective of the research was to analyze the management of trust of clients attending gyms in the District of Sucre, Colombia. The study consists of sampling units: entrepreneurs and clients. The sample of gym entrepreneurs is formed by 147 individuals, constituting the total population, while clients are 2,680 selected using a confidence level of 95%. The sampling range covered the District of Sucre, Colombia, considered as a rural area. The questionnaires applied allow to analyze indicators linked to the variable of gym entrepreneurs’ confidence towards their suppliers, customers, and competitors. For the analysis and processing of data, factorial analysis was run through SPSS 21.0, establishing the dimensionality criterion and analyzing the Pearson and Lisrel correlation matrices for structural equations. Main results showed that relationships between clients and gym entrepreneurs require trust, and they are mediated by the perception of both towards the service provided.