University of Costa Rica

About: University of Costa Rica is a education organization based out in San José, Costa Rica. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Venom. The organization has 9817 authors who have published 16781 publications receiving 238208 citations. The organization is also known as: UCR & Universidad de Costa Rica.

Development and Validation of Measure of Household Food Insecurity in Urban Costa Rica Confirms Proposed Generic Questionnaire

Abstract: Interest in household food insecurity (FI) within scientific and policy groups has motivated efforts to develop methods for measuring it. Questionnaires asking about FI experiences have been shown to be valid in the contexts in which they were created. The issue has arisen as to whether such questionnaires need be developed from the ground up or if a generic questionnaire can be adapted to a particular context. This study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of household FI in urban Costa Rica, develop and validate a questionnaire for its measurement, and inform the choice between the 2 methods of development. The study was conducting using qualitative and quantitative methods provided in the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) guidelines. In-depth interviews were conducted with 49 low-middle-income urban women using a semistructured interview guide. A 14-item FI questionnaire was developed based on results from these interviews. A field study was conducted in 213 households. The results show that the developed questionnaire provides valid measurement of household FI in urban Costa Rica and is simple and quick to apply in the household setting. FANTA developed a guide during the period that this research was completed that provides a generic questionnaire that can be adapted for use in various countries, rather than building the questionnaire from the ground up. This study provides evidence that careful attention to the procedures in this guide will likely yield a questionnaire suitable for assessing household FI in middle-income countries.

Inflammatory infiltrate in skeletal muscle injected with Bothrops asper venom.

Abstract: The time-course and composition of inflammatory infiltrate in mouse gastrocnemius injected with Bothrops asper venom was studied. The venom induced myonecrosis, and a prominent decrease in muscle levels of creatine kinase (CK) as early as 3 hr after envenomation. Inflammatory infiltrate was scarce by 6 hr. but increased markedly at 24, 48 and 72 hr. Samples of infiltrate obtained at 6 and 24 hr contained polymorphonuclear leucocytes as the predominant cell type, whereas at 48 hr and 72 hr the relative number of macrophages increased. Inflammatory cells were located within necrotic muscle cells, as well as in the interstitial space, but there were some necrotic areas devoid of inflammatory cells even one week after envenomation. When correlating the presence of inflammatory cells with degradation of myofibrillar proteins, it was observed that at 6 hr there was little muscle protein degradation. By 48 hr a decrease in "non collagen" proteins was observed, together with a reduction in some myofibrillar components, as judged by electrophoresis. Proteolytic enzymes of inflammatory cells may play an important role in myofibrillar protein degradation after myonecrosis induced by B. asper venom.

Sekikaic Acid and Lobaric Acid Target a Dynamic Interface of the Coactivator CBP/p300

Abstract: Capturing a coactivator, naturally: the natural products sekikaic acid and lobaric acid, isolated after a high-throughput screen of a structurally diverse extract collection, effectively target the dynamic binding interfaces of the GACKIX domain of the coactivator CBP/p300. These molecules are the most effective inhibitors of the GACKIX domain yet described and are uniquely selective for this domain.

Interannual variability of the midsummer drought in Central America and the connection with sea surface temperatures

Abstract: . The midsummer drought (MSD) in Central America is characterised in order to create annual indexes representing the timing of its phases (start, minimum and end), and other features relevant for MSD forecasting such as the intensity and the magnitude. The MSD intensity is defined as the minimum rainfall detected during the MSD, meanwhile the magnitude is the total precipitation divided by the total days between the start and end of the MSD. It is shown that the MSD extends along the Pacific coast, however, a similar MSD structure was detected also in two stations in the Caribbean side of Central America, located in Nicaragua. The MSD intensity and magnitude show a negative relationship with Nino 3.4 and a positive relationship with the Caribbean low-level jet (CLLJ) index, however for the Caribbean stations the results were not statistically significant, which is indicating that other processes might be modulating the precipitation during the MSD over the Caribbean coast. On the other hand, the temporal variables (start, minimum and end) show low and no significant correlations with the same indexes. The results from canonical correlation analysis (CCA) show good performance to study the MSD intensity and magnitude, however, for the temporal indexes the performance is not satisfactory due to the low skill to predict the MSD phases. Moreover, we find that CCA shows potential predictability of the MSD intensity and magnitude using sea surface temperatures (SST) with leading times of up to 3 months. Using CCA as diagnostic tool it is found that during June, an SST dipole pattern upon the neighbouring waters to Central America is the main variability mode controlling the inter-annual variability of the MSD features. However, there is also evidence that the regional waters are playing an important role in the annual modulation of the MSD features. The waters in the PDO vicinity might be also controlling the rainfall during the MSD, however, exerting an opposite effect at the north and south regions of Central America.