University Of Havana Research Articles

What Happened to the US Diplomats in Havana? Mitchell Valdés MD PhD

He was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, but his family is Cuban. After 1959, they returned to the island, where Dr Mitchell Valdes received his medical degree at the University of Havana in 1972. He went on to study clinical neurophysiology, earning his PhD with a dissertation on the auditory system’s sensory physiology. When the Neuroscience Center opened (as part of western Havana’s Scientific Pole). he became its director, a post he holds today. Dr Valdes, a Distinguished Member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, is widely published and has collaborated with colleagues in dozens of countries, including the USA, UK, Italy and Holland. He is a full professor of clinical neurophysiology, sits on Cuba’s National Coordinating Group for Persons with Disabilities, and serves as an honorary professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. What brought me to his office is the set of symptoms reported by some two dozen US diplomats in Cuba and more recently in China as well. And the controversy surrounding what might be the root cause—a topic that has crossed the line from medicine into politics. MEDICC Review’s intent was to hear from Dr Valdes on the science pertinent to the controversy.

The Power of Persistence: María Amparo Pascual MD MS

Throughout the 1980s, Cuban researchers at the country’s biotech campus known as the Scientific Pole were making innovative discoveries and began developing unique therapies and vaccines unavailable elsewhere in the world. The pace and level of innovation meant prioritizing the establishment of a dedicated, internationally‐certified institute for clinical trials. These and other accomplishments in science and related sectors, coupled with statistics revealing that 53% of all scientists in Cuba are women, prompted MEDICC Review to publish a series of interviews with outstanding Cuban women in science, technology and medicine. In this, the second installment in the series, we spoke with Dr Maria Amparo Pascual, a biostatistician, researcher and professor, and the driving force behind the design and establishment of Cuba’s Clinical Trials Coordinating Center (CENCEC). From 1991 to 2014, Dr Pascual served as founding director of CENCEC. During that time the center implemented internationally-recognized good clinical practices (GCP), launched the National Clinical Trials Coordinating Network to support trials overseen by CENCEC, began conferring master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical trials; initiated a quality management system for all trials (receiving ISO 9001 certification in 2008) and created the Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials—a bilingual, WHO–accredited Primary Registry, the first in the Americas. In 2013, the BBC recognized Dr Pascual as one of the most infl uential female scientists in Latin America for her achievements, including becoming Cuba’s first biostatistician and her work at CENCEC. In 2014, Dr Pascual stepped down as director of CENCEC but didn’t slow down or leave the center she helped build, literally from the ground up: she currently serves as management consultant and researcher at CENCEC, as well as director of the Research Ethics Evaluation System Project there. She is also a professor in the Center’s clinical trials graduate degree program and of bioethics at the Medical University of Havana. She is finishing her doctoral dissertation on clinical trials in Cuba and the founding and evolution of CENCEC.

No one is perfect: a dimensional discursive semantic analysis of Rufo Caballero’s film critique

Criticizing cinema has always been a historical temptation and not exactly the most encouraging one. Misunderstood by some, admired by others; Rufo Caballero's atypical and controversial opinion speech goes beyond the scope of a strictly academic film critique. The object of study of the following work is the critical evaluating subject of cinema as the modal ilocutive actant of the evaluative speech acts in the discourse on cinematographic criticism. Dimensional analysis has been used as a fundamental methodology to study the content of the value meaning of utterances and their constituents: speech acts. It is based on the semantic value analysis model developed by the group of Semantic and Semiotic Studies of the Foreign Language School of the University of Havana. In particular, this discourse of the evaluating subject Rufo Caballero unfolded as a critical film illocutionary agent is characterized by positive, ambiguous and negative axiological positions always framed in the aesthetic domain. The critical ilocutive subject is modeled in consonance with its functions, generally of aesthetic appreciation, from the relation with the focalized objects: the film, the performance, the dramaturgy, the styles of the filmmakers and also their assumed attitude as a critic.

Enfoque epistemológico, teórico y metodológico de la categoría prácticas discursivas en la investigación en Comunicación Social

En el estudio de la comunicación ha sido tradicional el interés por el análisis de las expresiones, cuyas denominaciones han sido diversas: mensaje, contenido, discurso, etcétera. Dentro de ellas, desde hace varios años ha ido cobrando auge la concepción de discurso como forma de organización de lo social o como práctica social, lo que determina la importancia que se le otorga en función de comprender la construcción de significados en las sociedades actuales. Teniendo como punto de partida un conjunto de problemáticas detectadas en una investigación realizada a la producción científica de la Facultad de Comunicación de la Universidad de La Habana, que emplea en análisis del discurso, el artículo realiza un acercamiento teórico a las categorías discurso y prácticas discursivas. Además propone implicaciones epistemológicas, teóricas y metodológicas de considerar la categoría prácticas discursivas para la investigación en el campo de la comunicación social. El abordaje del discurso desde la concepción de prácticas discursivas enriquece la perspectiva epistemológica, teórica y metodológica de la investigación en comunicación que debe repensarse a la luz de las demandas de la sociedad contemporánea, en la que las nuevas tecnologías asignan un papel activo a los sujetos y actores en los procesos discursivos y sociales.

Estrategias para la formación profesional en periodismo radiofónico: experiencias y propuestas / Strategies for professional training in radio journalism: experiences and proposals

Esta propuesta recoge algunas bases para la formación profesional de la asignatura de Periodismo Radiofónico en la Facultad de Comunicación de la Universidad de La Habana. El texto explora en la construcción simbólica para el escenario cubano en los contextos culturales contemporáneos, sobre el eje transversal de la enseñanza radial. Interpretar la realidad y comunicarla, así como la combinación de la teoría y con la práctica es parte de las esencias pedagógicas que contribuyen a entender la complejidad de nuestros días. En ese escenario el profesor debe asumir un liderazgo noticioso comunicativo y pedagógico que deberá influenciar en la formación profesional.

Weathering US–Cuba Political Storms: José Rubiera PhD

Full disclosure: chief weather forecaster is not his official title, but rather one affectionally conferred on Dr Rubiera by the Cuban people, who look to him not only in times of peril, but also to learn about the science of meteorology. Anyone who has taken a taxi in Cuba during hurricane season (June 1 to November 30), and bothered to ask the driver, will receive a clear explanation about how hurricanes are formed, what the Saffir-Simpson scale is all about, and how the season is shaping up—all courtesy of Dr Rubiera’s talent for communication during nightly weather forecasts and special broadcasts. It’s no exaggeration to say that he is something of an icon in Cuba, a man people trust. Now, he is retired as chief of forecasting at Cuba’s Meteorology Institute, but he stays on as an advisor, and since 1989 represents Cuba’s Meteorological Service as the Vice Chairperson of the World Meteorological Organization’s Hurricane Committee for Region IV (North America, Central America and the Caribbean). He also keeps a spot on nightly news and hosts two TV shows of his own: Global Weather and Weather in the Caribbean. And his PhD in meteorology serves him well as full professor at the University of Havana in—what else?— meteorology communications. Finally, he has been a driving force in Cuba for collaboration with Miami’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) and other US meteorologists (in fact, the Chairperson of the Region IV Committee is the head of the NHC). But, as he says over a cup of rich Cuban coffee, it all started with a two-year-old in a yellow sweater.

Los estudios de emisores en Cuba. Mirada a las investigaciones que tributan a la disciplina Comunicación y Sociedad (2004-2010)

¿Cuáles han sido las principales aportaciones a la línea de estudios de emisores en la Facultad de Comunicación de la Universidad de La Habana, a partir de las investigaciones que han tributado a la disciplina Comunicación y Sociedad en el período comprendido entre 2004-2010?, ¿Qué aspectos generales han caracterizado a dicha práctica empírica en Cuba? Constituyen estas las interrogantes a las cuales aspira dar respuesta el presente trabajo. Para ello, se realizó primero una proximidad teórico-conceptual y luego una valoración acerca del carácter pluridisciplinar que ha caracterizado a esta modalidad investigativa en el país, lo que sustentará las reflexiones contenidas en los resultados. Fue necesario la consulta de autores como: Lewin, (1947), Wolf (2005) y (Torres, G, 2010). Asimismo, se revisaron documentos normativos de la XIII Edición de la maestría en Ciencias de la Comunicación de dicho centro.

INTEGRATION OF OZONE THERAPY FOR HEAD AND NECK INFECTIVE AND CHRONIC DISEASE

Introduction.
 Treatment and management of complex chronic disease states within the head and neck have traditionally been treated within the scope and philosophy of allopathic based dental/medical model. Success is therapeutically based upon three stanchions symptomology, pharmacology and surgical intervention. As with the successes of any therapeutic model some complications are possible. Symptomatic treatment does not address the root causality of the disease process. In addition, the patient can experience pharmaceutical side effects and post-surgical compilations such as infection and impaired healing processes. Ozone therapy as part of an Integrative Biologic Dental Medicine model has allowed for a paradigm shift in thinking and approach to the ever-growing problems of therapy resistant infection, aging population and chronic long term aliments [1-3]. The management of acute and chronic infective disease is a critical factor in the overall health and wellness of patients. The head and neck are principle areas of infective disease. Primary contributors to this issue are infections of odontogenic and/or osteogenic origins [4]. Ozone therapy has become one of the principle therapeutic modalities utilized in Integrative Biologic Dental Medicine “IBDM'. The objective of this presentation will be to explain and demonstrate specifically how ozone therapy is utilized in dental medicine. Through specific micro-dosing and anatomic placement of ozone enhanced healing processes can occur [5]. Reparative osteogenesis is one corner stone in the restoration and maintenance of human jaw integrity [6]. Case presentations will be the demonstrative educational model by which comprehensive head and neck infection remediation and tissue repair occur for patients. 
 Material and methods.
 In 2011, Professor Olga Sonia Leon Fernandez, University of Havana, Cuba, presented at the European Ozone Congress what she calls “Fundamental Scientific facts about Medical Ozone” [7]. This information reinforced the previous work done by Dr. Renate Viebahn-Hansler and Dr. Velio Bocci. These fundamental facts are significant in that they can directly influence biologic systems on multiple levels in a positive way to support and enhance the patient's healing process [1,7,8]. These scientific facts include the following: 
 1 Disinfection properties: microbicidal effect (bactericide, fungicide, virostatic, parasiticidal) 
 2 Wound cleaning 
 3 Enhance wound healing 
 4 Activation of red blood cell metabolism with improved oxygen release, increase in ATP levels 
 5 Activation of immunocompetent cells and release of cytokines such as interferones and interleukins. 
 6 Modulation of the immune system. 
 7 Increase in antioxidant capacity through activation of cellular antioxidants – (superoxide dismutase, catalase) 
 8 Anti-inflammatory effect 
 9 Endothelium cell increased release of nitric oxide 
 10 Equilibration of Redox Potential 
 11 Release of stem cells, autacoids and growth factors 
 
 Taking into consideration the multitude of positive therapeutic biologic effects ozone therapy has, one has to wonder if it is possible to support and enhance that process and ultimately improve the patient's outcome [9]. Development and incorporation of an educational and clinical model is a critical cornerstone for successful patient outcomes. Based upon the thesis of result based dental medicine, Integrative Biologic Dental Medicine was created. As a result guidelines based upon the low-dose concept of oxygen/ozone therapy can be integrated into the daily practice of dental medicine. 
 Conclusions.
 Integration of oxygen/ozone therapy into dental medicine is a paradigm shift for patient enhanced outcomes. Comprehensive understanding of the proper application and integration of this therapeutic modality is critical. This can only be achieved through proper training of the practitioner based upon a sound educational and philosophical model. Integrative Biologic Dental Medicine is an established educational and philosophical model that recognizes and welcomes emerging and established therapeutic modalities such as oxygen/ozone therapy.

Empowering Cuban Women: Marta Núñez MS PhD, Sociologist & Consulting Professor, University of Havana.

After nearly 60 years of universal education and health, coupled with national policies supporting women's rights and advancement, the results are in: according to recent data, more than half of Cuban scientists and almost 60% of all professionals in Cuba are women. Moreover, women's representation in government is rising, including at the highest levels such as parliament, where they constitute 53.2% of members. Digging deeper, we find a story richer than national statistics or political representation. It's the story of the collective achievements of female professionals on the island. For example, the clinical research team responsible for developing CIMAvax-EGF, Cuba's novel biotech therapy for non-small cell lung cancer, was headed by a woman. Likewise, the lead scientist of the Cuban team that developed the world's first effective meningitis B vaccine is a woman. And the cofounder of the country's clinical trials coordinating center and registry is a woman, as is the founder of the National Center for Agricultural Animal Health. Yet, as in any country, there is more to be done to achieve true gender parity and release the full potential of women. To begin our series profiling outstanding Cuban women professionals, MEDICC Review spoke with sociologist Dr Marta Núñez, who has devoted decades to research on gender relations and the role of women in Cuba. She provides an overview and framework for contextualizing the advancement of Cuban women-including the challenges still to overcome.

La literatura como manifestación del lenguaje. Análisis comparativo de la sintaxis de dos cuentos

espanolA finales de los ochenta, como parte del proyecto de investigacion “El espanol en Cuba” se llevo a cabo el estudio “Sintaxis de la norma culta escrita en Cuba: cuento y articulo periodistico”, bajo la direccion del profesor Luis Enrique Rodriguez. Entre sus objetivos estaba aplicar el analisis sintactico a la caracterizacion linguoestilistica de textos mas extensos. Los resultados finales de la investigacion nunca fueron publicados, pero la metodologia elaborada es aun empleada en cursos de posgrado impartidos en la Facultad de Artes y Letras de la Universidad de La Habana. En el presente trabajo se aplica la metodologia propuesta, con el fin de analizar dos cuentos y compararlos. La intencion no es realizar un analisis linguoestilistico detallado, sino mostrar la aplicacion de un metodo de analisis sintactico a un rasgo particular en el estilo de los cuentos: la tecnica del flujo de conciencia. EnglishIn the late eighties, as part of the research project “The Spanish language in Cuba”, the study “Syntax of the educated norm of Cuba: the short story and newspaper article” was performed under the direction of Professor Luis Enrique Rodriguez. One of the objectives was to apply syntactic analysis to the linguo-stylistic characterization of more extensive texts. The final results of the investigation were never published, but the methodology developed is still used in postgraduate courses taught at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Havana. In the present article, the proposed methodology is applied to analyze two short stories and compare them. Our aim is not to make a detailed linguo-stylistic analysis, but to show how a method of syntactic analysis may be applied to a particular feature in the style of the stories: the technique of the stream of consciousness.

The Visits and Other Poems/Las visitas y otros poemas by Mirta Yáñez

Reviewed by: The Visits and Other Poems/Las visitas y otros poemas by Mirta Yáñez Douglas LaPrade Yáñez, Mirta. The Visits and Other Poems/Las visitas y otros poemas. Translated by Elizabeth Gamble Miller. Cubanabooks, 2016. Pp. 135. ISBN 978-1-944176-11-2. Mirta Yáñez was born in Cuba in 1947, and she writes poems about how she first discovered Old Havana on a visit with her schoolmates. Yáñez's volume also represents her attempt to identify her unique persona within Cuba's literary heritage. Her effort reminds the academic reader of T. S. Eliot's essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent," which teaches that the poet cannot articulate her own voice until she first renders homage to her poetic ancestry. This volume includes a prologue by José Antonio Portuondo, who recalls the poet's excursion to Old Havana with her fellow students in her art history class. Portuondo describes Yáñez's fascination with the various styles of architecture in the old Spanish colonial part of town, much of it dilapidated. Yáñez writes of the nostalgia evoked by the stained-glass windows, iron gratings, and art nouveau fixtures. For the contemporary American reader, Cuba is synonymous with nostalgia. Yáñez discovered the anachronistic charms of Cuba before the Revolution, so her poetry adds a valuable perspective. She adds depth to her reflections by evoking the specter of Rimbaud on her stroll through Old Havana. She also summons the voice of Bola de Nieve, a famous Cuban singer she recalls from her youth. Other poems in this collection remind the reader that Mirta Yáñez earned a doctoral degree and taught literature at the University of Havana. In fact, she writes with a sense of duty to preserve poetic tradition and to convey it to the next generation. The poem entitled "Quehacer generacional/A Generational Duty" is a virtual anthem to all professors of literature who have tried to persuade their students of the efficacy of poetry. The poem is a professor's impassioned plea to her students to embrace their poetic heritage. The very next poem in the volume, "Periodización/Periodicity," traces all the ages of poetry from Pre-Columbian, to the Conquest, to Neo-Classicism, Romanticism, and Modernism. This deliberate progression through the sequence of literary movements likewise recalls the poet's academic background. Mirta Yáñez is obsessed with acknowledging her debt to literary tradition, and she dedicates a poem to Christopher Columbus entitled "Primera crónica/First News Report." The poem never mentions the name of Columbus, who is identified as "El Almirante/The Admiral." In the poem, Yáñez imagines Columbus writing his first report of Cuba on a parchment. As he concludes his chronicle with a period, he stores the parchment unceremoniously next to a bead necklace that will be traded with the indigenous people of the island. The poem's ironic conclusion suggests that Cuba's first literary artifact also represents the origin of capitalism and commerce in Cuba, as well as the extinction of indigenous customs. In another poem, "Conferencia/A Lecture," the professor tries to explain the passions that inspired the ancient poets. As she lectures on the yellowed pages of the bygone poets, her mind [End Page 483] wanders, and she speculates on her students' desires and on her own emotions, which are not the subject of her lecture, but which are foretold by the ancients. Other poems pay homage to Latin American writers who have inspired Yáñez, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Rubén Darío, Horacio Quiroga, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. In "Rubén," the professor introduces her students to a bust of the Nicaraguan poet and tries to make them understand the poet's struggle without referring to his poetry, but merely by contemplating the bust. The poem entitled "Contextos de Sor Juana Inés/The Contextual Contours of Sor Juana Inés" acknowledges the boldness of the early feminist poet. "Objetos/Objects" is a warning against the excessive nostalgia that inspires yet paralyzes poets. As the poem begins, the poet finds a small stone in a drawer and knows that she placed it there...

What Happened to the US Diplomats in Havana? Mitchell Valdés MD PhD Director, Cuban Neuroscience Center.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, but his family is Cuban. After 1959, they returned to the island, where Dr Mitchell Valdés received his medical degree at the University of Havana in 1972. He went on to study clinical neurophysiology, earning his PhD with a dissertation on the auditory system's sensory physiology.

La revista informativa en la televisión cubana: un estudio sobre el Canal Educativo de Cuba

Partiendo de los presupuestos teóricos que rigen la estructura, en cuanto a contenido y forma, de los informativos de televisión en la actualidad, la investigación abarca desde un prisma holístico a la incidencia y correlato práctico que han tenido esas bases dogmáticas en el desarrollo de los noticiarios de la televisión cubana, adentrándose en un estudio de caso referido a la revista informativa de la programación del Canal Educativo de Cuba y su posterior modificación a partir de criterios sólidos sostenidos en el estudio que dinamizan su algoritmo de realización y ponderan la toma de nuevos valores estéticos. El estudio se ubica dentro de la línea de estudios Teórico-Metodológicos de la Información y la Comunicación de la Facultad de Comunicación de la Universidad de La Habana

Familia homoparental en Cuba: una realidad no contada

La investigación aborda las temáticas relacionadas con la comunidad LGTBI, y dentro ellas el tratamiento a la familia homoparental en Cuba, a fin de develar sus rasgos en la producción audiovisual cubana, y los factores socio-culturales y jurídicos que así lo determinan. A partir de este resultado, el estudio propone un acercamiento al proceso de producción del documental Sí, quiero, realizado en la carrera de Periodismo de la Universidad de La Habana, que desarrolla su discurso audiovisual con una construcción de género inclusiva para promover el debate público sobre los derechos de la familia homoparental, tradicionalmente invisibilizada en los contenidos mediáticos y de las industrias culturales en Cuba y otras partes del mundo.

Biophysical and biochemical strategies to understand membrane binding and pore formation by sticholysins, pore-forming proteins from a sea anemone.

Actinoporins constitute a unique class of pore-forming toxins found in sea anemones that are able to bind and oligomerize in membranes, leading to cell swelling, impairment of ionic gradients and, eventually, to cell death. In this review we summarize the knowledge generated from the combination of biochemical and biophysical approaches to the study of sticholysins I and II (Sts, StI/II), two actinoporins largely characterized by the Center of Protein Studies at the University of Havana during the last 20years. These approaches include strategies for understanding the toxin structure-function relationship, the protein-membrane association process leading to pore formation and the interaction of toxin with cells. The rational combination of experimental and theoretical tools have allowed unraveling, at least partially, of the complex mechanisms involved in toxin-membrane interaction and of the molecular pathways triggered upon this interaction. The study of actinoporins is important not only to gain an understanding of their biological roles in anemone venom but also to investigate basic molecular mechanisms of protein insertion into membranes, protein-lipid interactions and the modulation of protein conformation by lipid binding. A deeper knowledge of the basic molecular mechanisms involved in Sts-cell interaction, as described in this review, will support the current investigations conducted by our group which focus on the design of immunotoxins against tumor cells and antigen-releasing systems to cell cytosol as Sts-based vaccine platforms.

Interview with Dr. Miguel Ángel Roca Perara about Psychological Intervention in Cuba: “Human Beings Are Made of a Complicated Substance”

The article is based on an interview with Prof. Miguel ángel Roca Perara, University of Havana about psychological intervention in Cuba. Trough out his professional career as a clinician and professor, he discusses the different psychological approaches as well as several types of psychotherapy in order to help improving the well-being of clients in Cuba, highlighting the major psychological problems in the country. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy are specially recognized as the more useful to be used in psychological intervention.

Dispatches from Cuba: Physics at the University of Havana

Cuban physicists conduct impressive research despite outdated equipment and meager salaries.

ACS in Cuba

The Ernest Eliel Workshop—U.S. & Cuba Collaboration in Chemistry Education & Neglected Disease Drug Discovery took place at the University of Havana on Oct. 17–21. The workshop was a follow-up to t...

Radical-arithmetic Electronic Controller

Radical arithmetic electronic controllers for automatic control of industrial processes, base their operating principle on the use of new mathematical equations deduced specifically for this purpose and they have been reviewed and approved by MsC. Maria Victoria Mederos, professor at the Faculty of mathematics and computer science in University of Havana. These equations greatly simplify logical and functional complexity compared to current regulators and their combinations such as PID Control diffuse or logical Fuzzy.

Acercamiento existencialista al drama La noche de los asesinos de José Triana. El Papel de la “mirada” en las relaciones intersubjetivas

The influence of existential philosophy in the Cuban literary production that blossomed after the 1959 Revolution has been little studied by scholars so far. This is probably due to the presence of other philosophical theories, such as American Pragmatism and the positivism of Cuban philosopher Enrique Jose Varona, or because many professors of philosophy from the University of Havana migrated to the United States after 1959. It seems certain, however, that the initial euphoria over the new social and political environment in Cuba meant that authors were reluctant to accept existential schools of philosophy and their accompanying pessimism. Nevertheless, there are some post-revolution Cuban literary productions that display existentialist aspects. One of these is the play La noche de los asesinos by Jose Triana, in which it is possible to see how the gaze of the other robs us of our inherent freedom and causes us to deprive ourselves of our existence.