UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-06-01DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.31
Oswgladys Garrido, E. Ferrer
{"title":"Characterization of Three cDNAs Obtained by Spliced Leader-PCR Screening of a Taenia solium cDNA Library","authors":"Oswgladys Garrido, E. Ferrer","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.31","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.31","url":null,"abstract":"Cysticerci or metacestodes of Taenia solium cause cysticercosis, being the neurocysticercosis (NCC) the main pathology. The characterization of genes is essential for the knowledge of parasite biology, the understanding of the parasite-host relationship, and the identification of possible targets for diagnosis, treatment, and protection. The objective of this work was the molecular and bioinformatic characterization of three news cDNAs (TsTF10, TsAAP8, and TsrGAP8), obtained by spliced leader-PCR screening of a Taenia solium cDNA library. The sequences of the three cDNA were compared with the sequences in the nucleic acid and protein databases (GenBank, EMBL) and analyzed by bioinformatic programs (CDD-Search of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Interpro of the European Bioinformatics Institute, Motif scan and Expert Protein Analysis System of the Proteomics Server from Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics). Considering the high identities with similar molecules of related helminths (Taenia asiatica, Echinococcus granulosus, Echinococcus multilocularis, and Hymenolepis diminuta) and the functional domains found, the TsTF10, TsAAP8, and TsrGAP8 genes of Taenia could act as a nuclear transcription factor gamma, a putative vacuolar ATPase membrane sector associated protein and a Rho GTPase activating protein, respectively. Although few B epitopes could be predicted in the sequences, it could be relevant to evaluate them as possible candidates for diagnosis and protection in cysticercosis. The characterization and analysis of these sequences and the prediction of their possible usefulness as antigens, vaccines, or therapeutic targets contribute to the designing and planning of future studies.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42478141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-06-01DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.30
Arianna Sosa-Lochedino, M. Hapon, C. Gamarra-Luques
{"title":"A Systematic Review About the Contribution of The Genus Tessaria (Asteraceae) To Cancer Study and Treatment","authors":"Arianna Sosa-Lochedino, M. Hapon, C. Gamarra-Luques","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.30","url":null,"abstract":"Belonging to the Asteraceae family, Tessaria (Ruiz & Pavon, 1753) is a genus of shrubs or small trees distributed in various habitats located from Argentina to the southwestern United States of America. The taxa are composed of five confirmed species, which have been previously reported for their ethnopharmacological uses as hypocholesterolemiant, hypoglycemic, antitussive, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and abortifacient agent; it also has been used in hepatic, renal, pulmonary, and rheumatic diseases. Up to the present, T. absinthioides, T. ambigua, T. dodoneifolia, T. fastigiata and T. integrifolia have been chemically analyzed. While decoctions, infusions, methanolic, and hydromethanolic extracts are the most studied botanical compounds, its most recognized phytochemical constituents are caffeoylquinic acid, eupatorin, naringenin, protocatechuic, and quercetin. Scientifically, several biomedical properties such as virucidal, antibacterial, leishmanicidal, insecticidal, gastroprotective, antiasthmatic, hypoglycemic, and antiatherogenic were attributed to the genus. Concerning oncologic research, the chemicals produced by Tessaria have antitumor activities interfering with carcinogenesis, cell proliferation, metastasis, and angiogenesis. In addition, the natural extracts obtained from Tessaria species have biological activities closely related to cancer, acting as antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. In particular, it has been reported that T. absinthioides resulted cytotoxic against several cancer cell lines and acts as an antitumoral compound in murine models. Due to the aforementioned antecedents, the Tessaria species are considered undervalued within the oncological field; the goal of the current systematic review is to summarize the information available on the genus, relevant for cancer research and treatment.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48695876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-06-01DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.36
M. Solís, Erick Muñoz-Alvarado, M. C. Pegalajar
{"title":"The Transformation of RGB Images to Munsell Soil-Color Charts","authors":"M. Solís, Erick Muñoz-Alvarado, M. C. Pegalajar","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.36","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.36","url":null,"abstract":"[Objective] The transformation from RGB to Munsell color space is a relevant issue for different tasks, such as the identification of soil taxonomy, organic materials, rock materials, skin types, among others. This research aims to develop alternatives based on feedforward networks and the convolutional neural networks to predict the hue, value, and chroma in the Munsell soil-color charts (MSCCs) from RGB images. [Methodology] We used images of Munsell soil-color charts from 2000 and 2009 versions taken from Millota et al. (2018) to train and test the models. A division of 2856 images in 10% for testing, 20% for validation, and 70% for training was used to build the models. [Results] The best approach was the convolutional neural networks for classification with 93% of total accuracy of hue, value, and chroma combination; it comprises three CNN, one for the hue prediction, another for value prediction, and the last one for chroma prediction. However, the three best models show closeness between the prediction and real values according to the CIEDE2000 distance. The cases classified incorrectly with this approach had a CIEDE2000 average of 0.27 and a standard deviation of 1.06. [Conclusions] The models demonstrated better color recognition in uncontrolled environments than the Transformation of Centore, which is the classical method to transform from RGB to HVC. The results were promising, but the model should be tested with real images at different applications, such as soil real images, to classify the soil color.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48711778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-06-01DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.34
Danyal Farsani, J. Villa-Ochoa
{"title":"Análisis de la atención visual de estudiantes a través de gafas espía","authors":"Danyal Farsani, J. Villa-Ochoa","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.34","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.34","url":null,"abstract":"La atención visual es un indicador importante en las interacciones entre docentes y estudiantes. Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio que buscó determinar cómo fluctúa la atención visual que los estudiantes prestan a la persona docente durante sus clases de matemáticas e inglés y detectar posibles diferencias en dicha atención. El estudio se llevó a cabo en una escuela secundaria con una muestra de 16 estudiantes (varones). Los datos se obtuvieron a través de una mini cámara de video, montada sobre las gafas que son usadas por los estudiantes. A través del uso de imágenes de Google, analizamos de manera automática y objetiva 2613 fotogramas de las grabaciones en las que la persona docente de la clase aparecía en el campo visual de los estudiantes. Los resultados dan cuenta de la diferencia en la atención visual de los estudiantes entre los introvertidos y los extrovertidos durante los 90 minutos de clase. También se observó que los estudiantes estaban más comprometidos visualmente cuando el discurso de la persona docente estaba acompañado de gestos. Se destaca la importancia de diversificar las interacciones que busque otras formas de comprometer a los estudiantes en los últimos dos tercios de la clase. Algunas implicaciones para los programas de desarrollo profesional se derivan de este estudio.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48675747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-06-01DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.37
Juan Pedro Martín-Díaz, Miguel Montes
{"title":"Conocimiento especializado para la enseñanza a través de la formulación de problemas en educación infantil","authors":"Juan Pedro Martín-Díaz, Miguel Montes","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.37","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.37","url":null,"abstract":"La formulación de problemas como actividad genuinamente matemática es una fuente inagotable de alternativas en el aula. Son muchos los autores que indican la importancia de esta práctica, así como instituciones como el National Council of Teaching of Mathematics. Pretendemos, a través de un estudio de caso, evidenciar las características del conocimiento movilizado por una maestra, al implementar una sesión de este tipo en 4 años de educación infantil, con énfasis en el conocimiento que usa para la planificación y puesta en práctica de la sesión. Para ello, utilizamos fragmentos de la grabación de la sesión de aula, acompañado de una entrevista posterior a la informante, con el objetivo de corroborar la información identificada durante el análisis de los datos extraídos de la sesión. El carácter específico matemático de esta actividad nos lleva a utilizar el modelo MTSK (Mathematics Teaching Specialized Knowledge) como referente para analizar el conocimiento especializado que una maestra de educación infantil moviliza durante una práctica de aula. Esta práctica se compone de dos tareas, ambas creadas y diseñadas por la maestra informante. Los resultados muestran aspectos relacionados con el MK (Mathematical Knowledge), pero, sobre todo, un predominio del PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) evidenciándose, la importancia de este conocimiento en la etapa de educación infantil para implementar una sesión de formulación de problemas.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46889558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-06-01DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.33
Carmen Mora-Aparicio, Carolina Alfaro-Chinchilla, Junior Pastor Pérez-Molina, Ilena Vega-Guzmán
{"title":"Aporte ambiental de la planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales Los Tajos en la remoción de contaminantes fisicoquímicos y microbiológicos","authors":"Carmen Mora-Aparicio, Carolina Alfaro-Chinchilla, Junior Pastor Pérez-Molina, Ilena Vega-Guzmán","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.33","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.33","url":null,"abstract":"El objetivo del estudio fue analizar el aporte ambiental hacia la calidad del río Torres considerando la remoción de contaminantes fisicoquímicos y microbiológicos de la planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales (PTAR) Los Tajos. Se realizó el análisis de datos fisicoquímicos y microbiológicos de las aguas de afluente y efluente de la PTAR (DBO, DQO, SST, STT, N-NH4+, P-PO43-, GyA, SAAM y coliformes fecales principalmente) y se analizó la variación en concentración de contaminantes en el río Torres previo y posterior a la construcción de la PTAR, que realiza un tratamiento primario a las aguas, todo asociado a la estacionalidad. Los datos se analizaron en R versión 3.6.1. Según la metodología del índice holandés, el río Torres se clasificó severamente contaminado previo a la construcción de la PTAR, y actualmente aumenta su grado de contaminación después de la descarga de la PTAR, principalmente en época lluviosa. La PTAR presenta remoción significativa para siete de los ocho parámetros analizados, los porcentajes de remoción más representativos son: SST (68.5 %), DBO (49.8 %) y GyA (54.7 %). Se demostró el aporte cuantitativo de la PTAR al río Torres removiendo toneladas de contaminantes de las aguas residuales desde el 2015 hasta el 2020, principalmente DQO (26,791.8 Mg), SST (24,162.6 Mg), DBO (12,290.0 Mg) y STT (30,267.7 Mg). Finalmente se dejó en evidencia la necesidad de construir las siguientes etapas de la PTAR que incluyen tratamiento secundario, que mejoraría la remoción de materia orgánica, surfactantes y nutrientes.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45255965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-06-01DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.32
Juan Diego Sánchez-Sánchez
{"title":"Habilidades técnicas en el ejercicio profesional de la ingeniería en Costa Rica: Un análisis neurocorrelativo","authors":"Juan Diego Sánchez-Sánchez","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.32","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.32","url":null,"abstract":"El trabajo tiene como objetivo principal la definición de las correlaciones y afectación que las variables demográficas del género, edad y grado universitario tienen en las habilidades técnicas de la ingeniería. El artículo precisa un análisis basado en el cruce de datos referentes a un estudio de campo aplicado a una muestra aleatoria y probabilística de ingenieros activos en el ejercicio de su profesión en Costa Rica, presenta un abordaje de corte neuroinductivo y correlacional, en referencia a la preponderancia de las habilidades técnicas en el ejercicio profesional de la ingeniería. Se precisan las bases teóricas para el entendimiento de los factores neuroconductuales que definen el abordaje de una determinada habilidad técnica, para, posteriormente, ser analizadas de forma aplicativa en función de resultados cruzados, ligados a las variables demográficas de interés en los sujetos de estudio. Finaliza con el establecimiento de un estudio de correlaciones estadísticas múltiples en términos de las habilidades y elementos demográficos de interés tales como el grado académico y la edad. Resaltan las influencias directas que la edad y el grado manifiestan en las habilidades técnicas, con coeficientes promedio de 5.01 % y 3.45 %; se observa, a la vez, una correlación contraria en términos de habilidades como la matemática y la programación. Se establece una relación de interés, en donde las habilidades técnicas parecen estar relacionadas directamente con las variables independientes.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48212497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-03-30DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.27
Norbert Ferenčík, R. Hudák, M. Kohan, Viktória Rajťúková
{"title":"Pros and Cons of Computer-Assisted Rehabilitation","authors":"Norbert Ferenčík, R. Hudák, M. Kohan, Viktória Rajťúková","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.27","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.27","url":null,"abstract":"This article summarized the knowledge obtained from exercises with patients using computer-assisted rehabilitation. Working with a wide base of healthy individuals and patients with various problems yielded the results to summarize. This work utilized several rehabilitation devices using computer games and uncovered positive and negative aspects of contemporary rehabilitation procedures. we conclude in this research computer-assisted rehabilitation is the future of modern rehabilitation, so it is necessary to know all factors affecting patients’ health.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44839378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-03-30DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.28
R. Joshi, Saumya Yadav, M. Dutta, C. Travieso-González
{"title":"An Efficient Convolutional Neural Network to Detect and Count Blood Cells","authors":"R. Joshi, Saumya Yadav, M. Dutta, C. Travieso-González","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.28","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.28","url":null,"abstract":"Blood cell analysis is an important part of the health and immunity assessment. There are three major components of the blood: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. The count and density of these blood cells are used to find multiple disorders like blood infections (anemia, leukemia, among others). Traditional methods are time-consuming, and the test cost is high. Thus, it arises the need for automated methods that can detect different kinds of blood cells and count the number of cells. A convolutional neural network-based framework is proposed for detecting and counting the cells. The neural network is trained for the multiple iterations, and a model having lower validation loss is saved. The experiments are done to analyze the performance of the detection system and results with high accuracy in the counting of the cells. The mean average precision is achieved when compared to ground truth provided to respective labels. The value of the average precision is found to be ranging from 70% to 99.1%, with a mean average precision value of 85.35%. The proposed framework had much less time complexity: it took only 0.111 seconds to process an image frame with dimensions of 640×480 pixels. The system can also be implemented in low-cost, single-board computers for rapid prototyping. The efficiency of the proposed framework to identify and count different blood cells can be utilized to assist medical professionals in finding disorders and making decisions based on the obtained report.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43114595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
UnicienciaPub Date : 2022-03-30DOI: 10.15359/ru.36-1.29
Austin Blanco-Solano, Francisco Siles Canales, W. Alpízar-Alpízar
{"title":"Automated Quantification of Ki-67 on Gastric Epithelial Tissue based on Cell Nuclei Area Ratio","authors":"Austin Blanco-Solano, Francisco Siles Canales, W. Alpízar-Alpízar","doi":"10.15359/ru.36-1.29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15359/ru.36-1.29","url":null,"abstract":"The objective was to develop an automated algorithm for the estimation of a protein (Ki-67) index based on cell nuclei area ratio of gastric epithelial tissue cells; for this purpose, digital histopathology images were used. An expert manually annotated each region of interest of the images. A proportion of Ki-67 positive and negative cells within that region was used to obtain the color distribution of the corresponding pixels. The histogram of each color distribution was modeled as a Gaussian and, later, thresholded for segmentation and classification. Finally, the Ki-67 index was estimated as the ratio between the segmented positive area of the nuclei divided by the total area of the positive and negative nuclei. The automated method has a strong correlation of 0.725 and a root mean square error of 0.293 when compared to the manual method, which gives certainty that the automated method can be used to analyze the proliferation rate. Furthermore, compared to manual classification, the presented method automatically classifies every image in the same Ki-67 category: low, intermediate, and high. Despite the small sample size, the utility of the presented method was demonstrated. However, the low number of scored images did not allow for thoroughly sampling the ranges of pixel values and intensities observed by pathologists, which will be addressed in future work.","PeriodicalId":42209,"journal":{"name":"Uniciencia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48912190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}