Transversal Design Research Articles

Do It, Don't Feel It, and Be Invincible: A Prolog of Exercise Addiction in Endurance Sports.

The social relevance of endurance sports has increased people’s motivation to engage in these particular physical activities, associating their practice with a particular lifestyle (e.g., feeling victorious and a feeling of self-improvement). Therefore, the dark personality traits (not because they are negative but because they are more hidden), understood as a personal and adaptive response to the psychosocial relationships that athletes establish while practicing these sports. Following these arguments, Grit has been used to trace the response of athletes in their quest to improve performance and endurance in the face of common setbacks suffered as a result of long hours of training. Empirical studies should help to discover how these personality traits can pose real challenges to their adaptation, and what the impact of their psychological response may be in a functional or dysfunctional way [e.g., exercise addiction (EA)], in order to classify them as risk or protective factors. Through transversal design, the present study sought to explore the relationship between Grit and Dark Traits of Personality regarding the appearance of EA in a sample (N = 241) of amateur endurance sport athletes (Mage = 31.80; SD = 9.87). The results show that men not only score higher for addiction levels but also for narcissism (grandiosity feelings) and psychopathy (coldness) factors. If signs of narcissism and Machiavellianism increase, perseverance efforts grow too, and the likelihood of EA increases considerably. The conclusions drawn on the basis of the results allow us to place consistency of interest as a protective factor for the EA, whereas Dark Traits of personality – especially Machiavellianism – constitute a risk factor.

Estrategias de enseñanza en las materias vinculadas a la salud de las Carreras de Educación Física de la FaHCE-UNLP

La enseñanza universitaria, en la actualidad, se encuentra en un contexto cambiante y debe satisfacer nuevas demandas sociales. En este marco, se busca comprender la valoración de los docentes y los estudiantes sobre las estrategias de enseñanza en las materias vinculadas a la salud en las Carreras de Educación Física de la FaHCE-UNLP, con el fin de conocer cuáles de ellas se utilizan con más frecuencia, cuáles se prefieren y cuáles se rechazan, vislumbrar por qué determinadas estrategias de enseñanza son más apreciadas que otras y entender las necesidades de los estudiantes y de los docentes en base a sus experiencias como aprendices o como profesores. La metodología es mixta, diseño de triangulación concurrente. Aspectos cuantitativos: diseño descriptivo, no experimental, transversal. Aspectos cualitativos: diseño fenomenológico, muestra no probabilística o dirigida. Para la recolección de datos se utilizaron entrevistas y cuestionarios. Los resultados fueron analizados mediante los programas SPSS y Atlas.ti. La experiencia de estudiantes y docentes indica que las estrategias de enseñanza requeridas son aquellas dirigidas a la acción práctica en distintos contextos y al entrenamiento y desarrollo de habilidades operativas. Debería aumentarse la integración entre estas estrategias y las que persiguen la asimilación de conocimientos y desarrollo cognitivo.

New construction of partial geometries based on group divisible designs and their associated LDPC codes

As a general framework, partial geometries play an important role in constructing good low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with low error-floors. Partial geometries from row–column constrained (RC-constrained) arrays of circulant permutation matrices (CPMs) have been determined by Q. Diao et al. In this paper, we study partial geometries from RC-constrained matrices based on group divisible designs (GDDs). From the combinational design perspective, it is shown that the existence of two classes of partial geometries is equivalent to the existence of balanced incomplete block designs (BIBDs) and transversal design (TDs), respectively. Therefore, relevant constructions of BIBDs and TDs are presented. Furthermore, we present a method for constructing LDPC codes with flexible code rate and length parameters by employing the resolvability of GDDs. Numerical results show that the proposed LDPC codes have good performance under iterative decoding over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel.

The relationship between the positive aspects of caring and the personal growth of caregivers of patients with advanced oncological illness : Postraumattic growth and caregiver.

Examine the relationship between the positive aspects of care and the personal growth of caregivers of patients with advanced oncological illness. This research was a quantitative study with a transversal design. One hundred (100) informal caregivers filled out self-applied questionnaire on resilience, aspects of care, emotional distress, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth. Descriptive statistics were applied to the data, later correlation, and regression, and comparative analyses were conducted. The participants were mainly women (86%) with an average care period of 12 months. The average age was 46.52 years. The highest scores were evidenced in positive aspects of caretaking, spirituality, personal growth, and distress, while the lowest score was seen in questions related to resilience. There was a negative inverse correlation among emotional distress, resilience, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth (p < .05) and a positive correlation among resilience, spirituality, posttraumatic growth, and the positive aspects of caretaking (p < .01). There were significant differences among the items related to emotional distress, resilience, and posttraumatic growth. The linear regression analysis showed that as resilience, spirituality, and the positive aspects of care increased, so did posttraumatic growth. To promote the perception of benefits among caregivers, resilience and the identification of meaning in the caregiving experience of patients with advanced oncological illness can be considered protective factors favoring adaptation and reducing negative moods.

Diversidad biológica y seguridad alimentaria que ofrecen las huertas urbanas del altiplano andino – amazónico en el Valle de Sibundoy, Putumayo, Colombia

La presente investigación tiene un diseño metodológico descriptivo no experimental y trasversal, enfocado al estudio de las plantas cultivadas en las huertas, así como también el manejo por cada uno de sus propietarios, y el papel de las mismas en la seguridad alimentaria y la diversidad biológica. Se evaluaron diez huertas urbanas familiares ubicadas en el municipio de Sibundoy, Putumayo, Colombia, en las cuales se encontró un total de 31776 individuos, distribuidas en 113 especies, pertenecientes a 45 familias botánicas; según los propietarios de las huertas familiares consideraron importantes las plantas comestibles con 91 especies las cuales fueron incluidas en la categoría de uso comestible, lo que es indicativo de que la finalidad de las huertas familiares es la alimentación, aunque también se destacan las plantas de uso medicinal. Se evaluó la diversidad biológica con los índices de biodiversidad de Margalef, Shannon, Simpson, el análisis de similitud de huertas de Jaccard y el método de rarefacción con la ayuda del software libre DIVA-GIS 7,5 © para analizar la riqueza y distribución de especies, encontrando un alto índice de biodiversidad en las huertas estudiadas.

Comprensión lectora y rendimiento de matemáticas

En Chile, diversos estudios intentan determinar los factores que intervienen en la comprensión lectora a un nivel académico, personal y familiar dado los bajos resultados que tienen los estudiantes en las mediciones nacionales e internacionales que se realizan periódicamente. El presente estudio tiene como propósito describir la relación entre comprensión lectora y rendimiento académico en la asignatura de matemáticas en estudiantes de 4° medio de un establecimiento particular-subvencionado de la ciudad de Chillán, Chile.&#x0D; Mediante una metodología cuantitativa, con un diseño no experimental transversal y un alcance descriptivo-correlacional, se evalúo el porcentaje de comprensión lectora con el procedimiento cloze a 151 estudiantes que cursaban 4° medio. Los desempeños de dicha evaluación se correlacionaron con los promedios de matemáticas obtenidos por dichos estudiantes durante el primer semestre académico. Los resultados indican que existe una relación significativa de tipo fuerte y bidireccional entre las variables, tanto en sus mediciones numéricas como en las categóricas.

Modelo circumplejo de Olson y la relación con el consumo de alcohol en adolescentes

El consumo de sustancias psicoactivas es un problema de salud pública que afecta especialmente a población adolescente y joven en edad productiva. Estas sustancias impactan en el sistema de relaciones que teje la persona, entre ellos la familia, la escuela, el trabajo, entre otros; de ahí el deseo de investigar si existe relación entre el funcionamiento familiar, según el modelo circumplejo de Olson y el consumo de alcohol en adolescentes. Es una investigación cuantitativa de tipo correlacional con diseño no experimental trasversal, enfoque empírico analítico, con una muestra de 60 estudiantes de séptimo y octavo grado de edades entre los 12 y 19 años, a quienes se les aplicó el cuestionario AUDIT y la escala FACES IV, dando como resultados, que la cohesión y la comunicación entre padres e hijos son los factores de protección más relevantes frente al consumo de alcohol.Palabras Clave: cohesión, adaptabilidad, comunicación, alcohol, familia.

Perfectly Active Teenagers. When Does Physical Exercise Help Psychological Well-Being in Adolescents?

In the context of physical activity and sport, perfectionism and the regular practice of physical activity are related to psychological well-being and the regulation of psychological resources necessary for adaptation to effort and satisfaction. At the same time, the most active students are also those who show greater appetites for physical education classes. The goal of this work was to identify the influence of perfectionist beliefs and the regularity of the practice of physical exercise on psychological well-being. The participants were adolescents (n = 436) aged between 14 and 19 years (M = 16.80, SD = 0.77). They were administered the Multidimensional Perfection Scale, the Psychological Wellbeing Scale, the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQv2), and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The results showed, under a non-random and transversal design, that the participants gave important value to physical exercise because they feel both active and vigorous. Regarding perfectionism, the functional aspects of perfectionism (expectations of achievement and organization) correlated positively, while the dysfunctional aspects (fear of committing errors and external expectations) did so negatively with the importance given to physical exercise performed by adolescents; this in turn positively predicted psychological well-being. In this way, the hypothesized model contemplated the relevance of the included variables and reflected the mediation of the degree of importance given to the practice of physical exercise on perfectionist beliefs and psychological well-being. Currently, most physical activity practice proposals for adolescents focus on federated and structured environments for competition, and those that deal with recreational and health-oriented sports are far less common. Hence, “the perfect way of doing sports” for a teenager should be accompanied by cognitive schemes aimed at strengthening psychological resources that allow the regulation of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.

Cycle of violence in women victims of domestic violence: Qualitative analysis of OPD 2 interview.

IntroductionDomestic violence places woman as the victim and man as the aggressor in the family environment. There is limited consistent and clear information based on empirical evidence on the dynamic functioning of the victims.ObjectiveTo further understand the psychodynamics of women in the cycle of violence taking into account the aspects of psychological trauma. It is transversal research design. The sample was composed of ten women victim of domestic violence. Data collection was based on the OPD‐2 Clinical Interview. Content analysis was performed from categories created by a posteriori: (a) Previous history; (b) Behavioral aspects; (c) Emotional aspects; (d) Reason for being in the relationship; (e) Type of violence and explanation for the reason of violence; (f) Support network and daily activities; and (g) Clinical and legal referral.ResultsConstant violence causes changes in the structural functioning and psychological conflict of the victims: difficulties in mentalization, instability in relationships, emotional dependence, abandonment of her own life for her partners, difficulty in having a sense of identity. Victims presented difficulties in making significant changes in daily life to break the cycle of violence.ConclusionThe research sought to collaborate with more evidence on the subject, suggesting a reformulation on forms of encounter to break the cycle of violence.

Calidad de vida en pacientes con fibromialgia. Revisión bibliográfica

Abstract Objective: To describe the impact of fibromyalgia on the state of health and quality of life of people affected by fibromyalgia (FM). Method: Literature review of studies on the quality of life related to health in people with FM, evaluated with validated instruments. Results: Thirty-one studies were analyzed, which were mainly of transversal observational design. The most affected dimensions were physical function, pain and mental state. The factors like sedentary lifestyle and physical activity were significant in this population. The prevalence of Fibromyalgia was significantly higher in women, married, with low level of education and housewives. The most used instrument to measure quality of life related to health was the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). Conclusions: the parameters studied have allowed to assess the needs of patients and achieve a more comprehensive knowledge of the process of this disease. Keywords: fibromyalgia, quality of life, pain, rheumatic diseases.

Competencias del gerente educativo en instituciones educativas de Riohacha, Colombia

The present study was aimed at analyzing the competences of the educational manager in Educational Institutions of Riohacha, Colombia. Theoretically, it was supported by Acosta and Finol (2015), Moreno (2012), Tobón (2006), Garcia and Vaillant (2010), Aldape (2008), Zabalza (2007), among others. Regarding methodology, type The research was descriptive, with a non-experimental, transversal and field design, whose population consisted of six (6) managers and ninety-three (93) teachers from the private educational institutions of Riohacha, Colombia whose name is: Enmanuel Educational Center, Marcelo Graziosi School and David Campo Gym. In conclusion it is evident that for the directors the academic, administrative, communicative and human-social competences are practiced in the institutions almost always, while for the teachers such competences are almost never demonstrated by the directive personnel, these divergences indicate a felt need to improve the skills of the educational manager.

Mortality of septic old and adult male mice correlates with individual differences in premorbid behavioral phenotype and acute-phase sickness behavior.

Individual differences in premorbid behaviors and in those exhibited in the course of an infection disease may be useful to explain the individual susceptibility to infections, the underlying neuroimmunological mechanisms and be helpful to design patient oriented treatments with better prediction of pharmacological reactivity/outcome. Age (old) and gender (male) are also considered vulnerability factors. In the present study, the motor, emotional, anxious-like and social phenotypes of adult (6-month-old) and old (18-month-old) male C57BL/6 × 129Sv mice were determined using both a transversal and longitudinal designs prior to the analysis of LPS (150 mg/kg, i.p.)-induced sickness behavior and mortality. The results show: i) Individual premorbid behavioral phenotype had short- and long-term predictive value of hours of survival; ii) Persistence of behavioral traits from adulthood to old age and predictive value on hours of survival; iii) First signs of sickness behavior were also predicting mortality, mostly in old animals; iv) LPS-sickness behavior was the same at both ages but adult animals were able to show attempts of motor recovery; v) The mortality rate over 96 h was 100% in both ages, but old animals showed shorter survival times. In summary, these results confirm the relevance of age/aging but also individual behavioral differences in the premorbid phenotype and the morbidity response to the LPS-induced-sepsis that correlate with the individual's mortality. Thus, this work supports the translational scenarios to study personalized evaluation of risks factors and psycho-neuro-immunological mechanisms relevant for better interventions and prognosis in the critically ill young but specially aged patient population.

Carga mental de trabajo en enfermeras/os de unidades de paciente crítico: estudio piloto

Objetivo: determinar la percepción de carga mental de trabajo en los enfermeros/as de una unidad de pacientes críticos de un Hospital Regional en Chile. Material y método: estudio con diseño descriptivo, trasversal y exploratorio. Se censó a 10 enfermeras/os que se desempeñan en un turno de la Unidad de Pacientes Críticos de un Hospital Regional de Chile. Para recopilar los datos se utilizaron dos instrumentos: Escala Subjetiva de Carga Mental de Trabajo y Antecedentes biopsicosociodemográficos. Para la realización de este estudio se consideraron los requisitos éticos de E. Emanuel. Resultados: en promedio 3,8 (D.E= 0.66) los trabajadores/as de la UPC participante de este estudio, perciben sobrecarga mental al realizar su trabajo. Conclusión: la sobrecarga mental de trabajo, pudiera generar consecuencias en su salud física y mental de los enfermeros/as participantes, por lo que es prioritario tomar medidas tendientes a mantener una carga mental adecuada.

Evaluación del Compromiso Organizacional de Servidores Públicos en México

Recibido: 30 de marzo del 2019Aprobado: 21 de abril del 2019El propósito principal de la investigación es evaluar el compromiso organizacional que servidores públicos de confianza tienen con una dependencia del Poder Ejecutivo del Estado de Tabasco, México así como identificar si existe relación entre variables sociodemográficas. El estudio tiene un diseño trasversal descriptivo, no experimental, cuantitativo, aplicando el instrumento de medición adaptado de los autores Meyer y Allen (1991), validado a través de juicio de expertos, la fiabilidad del instrumento se verificó con un Alfa de Cronbach de 0.824. Los resultados reflejaron que el nivel de compromiso organizacional no rebasa el 60 por ciento siendo la dimensión afectiva la que presenta mayor tendencia positiva y la dimensión de continuidad la más baja. Además se determinó que no existe ninguna relación entre las características sociodemográficas que se sometieron a análisis y el nivel de compromiso organizacional de los servidores públicos.

Niveles de burnout en docentes de secundaria: un estudio descriptivo analítico

El profesorado es especialmente vulnerable a desarrollar el síndrome de burnout debido a los componentes afectivos y emocionales inherentes al perfil profesional. La incidencia es más elevada en quienes trabajan en la etapa de enseñanza secundaria obligatoria (12-16a) y postobligatoria (16- 18a), con población adolescente, dado el momento de cambios vitales del alumnado y la exposición intensa a intereses sociales por un lado y, por otro, a la idiosincrasia organizativa de los centros educativos y a las demandas y presiones académicas que conlleva el inminente acceso al mundo laboral o formativo a la Enseñanza Superior. El objetivo del estudio es medir e interpretar la vivencia de burnout en los docentes participantes. Se trata de un diseño transversal descriptivo. La muestra invitada está compuesta por el profesorado de Educación Secundaria de los 24 Institutos de la provincia de Huesca (N=1.268) pertenecientes a la red pública de enseñanza en el curso 2014/15, la participación voluntaria conforma una muestra aceptante de n=167 docentes (13,17%). Para la medida del burnout se emplea la adaptación al castellano del (MBI-GS) de Salanova, Schaufeli, Llorens, Peiró y Grau (2000), mediante encuesta on-line. Los resultados indican que el profesorado participante presenta bajos índices de burnout (1,20%), con agotamiento y cinismo elevados y eficacia baja. Cabe pensar en una subdeclaración que precisaría estudios complementarios.

Prevalencia de depresión y estrés postraumático en los bomberos voluntarios

Recibido: 31 dic. 2018 Aceptado: 23 may. 2019&#x0D; Propósito: Determinar la prevalencia de depresión y estrés postraumático en los bomberos voluntarios en el departamento de Guatemala.&#x0D; Material y Métodos: Se desarrolló un análisis cuantitativo, con diseño descriptivo, transversal, en trabajadores que han laborado más de un año en el cuerpo de bomberos voluntarios de las estaciones No. 4, 10, 25,50 y 100 del departamento de Guatemala, se obtuvieron los datos por medio de la evaluación de estrés postraumático y la escala auto aplicada de evaluación de depresión de Beck.&#x0D; Resultados: En las estaciones de bomberos voluntarios, se evidenció que el 20% presenta síntomas de depresión y 10% presenta síntomas sugestivos de estrés postraumático. El grupo etario más afectado es el de 40 a 50 años siendo en su mayoría de sexo masculino. Según la clasificación de depresión, el 13% presenta depresión leve, el resto se encuentra normal al momento del estudio.&#x0D; Conclusiones: Se observó que 2 de cada 10 bomberos voluntarios presenta síntomas de depresión y 1 de cada 10 bomberos voluntarios presenta síntomas de estrés postraumático.&#x0D;

Leadership in the quality of hotel services in the city of Campeche, Mexico

The remainance and development in the market depend, among other factors, on the quality of sold products or provided services, which is a situation of concern in sectors such as tourism where globalization demands first level services, as is the case in the city of Campeche, where businessmen are investing in hotel infrastructure according to the colonial characteristics of the town. The research´s objective is to identify the incidence of leadership in the quality of services under the perception of hotel managers as responsible for the operability results. This research is a descriptive type with non-experimental transversal design, with a enumerated population; the results obtained through the quality and leadership indexes indicate that, contrary to expectations, managers consider that the provided services don´t have an adequate level of quality, and the design of new strategies is needed to improve the processes under the transformational leadership which must face problems with opportunity in order to innovate in the services of the market where they participate.

Widening and Strengthening of the Songpu Bridge

The old Songpu Bridge is a railway-highway combined steel truss bridge. Due to the continuously increased traffic pressure during the past decades, the Songpu Bridge needs to be widened and strengthened urgently. This paper presents key issues in the widening and reconstruction design of the old Songpu Bridge, including reinforcement of the truss, structural design of the upper and lower decks, connection details of the superstructure, transverse anti-overturning design, connecting methods between the renovated approach bridge and the old bridge and the seismic design of the renovated bridge as well. The experience and engineering practice will provide valuable references for other similar old bridges that also need retrofit and reconstruction.

Perceived Psychological Well-Being Among University Students: A Comparative Study by Gender

The aim of the present study was to compare the profiles of well-being between men and women Mexican university students. A total sample of 708 participants, 374 women and 334 men, aged 18-26 years participated in this study. A quantitative approach with a descriptive and transversal survey design was used. All the participants completed the Spanish version of the Psychological Well-Being Scales. The results of the one-way multivariate analysis of variance, followed by the one-way univariate analyses of variance, showed that compared with the women, the men obtained higher scores on the subscales self-acceptance, positive relationships, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life and personal growth. Because of the differences between men and women in their perception of well-being found, these findings suggest that in order to design any intervention for improving the perceived well-being of the students, the variable gender should be taken into account.

Evaluation of the effect of 1,3-bis-(4-phenyl-[1,2,3] triazole-1-il)2-propanol in comparison with metronidazole in an in vitro culture of Blastocystis in samples of patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

Metronidazole is the most-used pharmaceutical for the treatment of infection by Blastocystis. However, studies have reported resistance of the microorganism towards this pharmaceutical. In Mexico, studies concerning the prevalence of this parasite and its relationship to Irritable Bowel Syndrome have been carried out. To evaluate the in vitro effect of metronidazole and the compound 1,3-bis-(4-phenyl-[1,2,3] triazole-1-il)2-propanol over Blastocystis, as well as the prevalence of Blastocystis in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. A prospective, transversal design study (April 2016-April 2017) of 51 samples of patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, obtained from the ISSEMyM Medical Center in Toluca, Mexico. For the identification of Blastocystis was done in three serial stool samples through direct microscopic examination and the Ritchie technique. The in vitro susceptibility test towards metronidazole and the triazolic compound was done through a microculture in concentrations of 1 to 1000µg/mL, each one in triplicate. A 31.3% prevalence of Blastocystis was observed in the population, with greater prevalence in women (30.2%) than in men (25%). In the susceptibility test, a CL50 of 64µg/mL was obtained for metronidazole, in comparison to the CL50 of 250µg/mL for 1,3-bis-(4-phenyl-[1,2,3] triazole-1-il)2-propanol. This molecule in development has an effect for the treatment of infection by Blastocystis in vitro in patients with IBS and therefore, more studies should be performed.