Venezuelan Family Research Articles

Discrimination against migrants and its determinants: Evidence from a Multi-Purpose Field Experiment in the Housing Rental Market

The increasing number of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, which now exceeds 2.9 million, has raised concerns about their potential discrimination and socioeconomic integration. We propose a novel approach to studying discrimination in the housing rental market by conducting a multi-purpose field experiment with 574 real estate agents to, not only measure the extent of discrimination but also to explore its determinants. After gathering comprehensive data about the Real Estate Agents (REAs), they evaluated rental applications from Colombian, Venezuelan, and other nationality families. Our findings suggest the presence of discrimination in the housing rental market, as REAs were less likely to choose a Venezuelan family over a Colombian or other nationality family. We identified that this discrimination was influenced by factors such as age, gender, cognitive skills, and local market knowledge. We found that the discriminatory social norm is well recognized among REAs. This study has significant implications for policymakers, advocates, and practitioners, not only in Colombia but globally, as it sheds light on the mechanisms of discrimination against migrant populations and emphasizes the need to promote their integration and well-being.

Blue Morpho

SummaryIn what why can fiction help us craft and share ethnographic work when life is in flux and the people with whom we live with also have a hard time making “rational” sense of what is happening to them? This ethnographic fiction about love, quandary, and rebirth is set against the deep crisis in Venezuela—money has become worthless, families are shattered, mutual trust has evaporated, jobs and food are scarce, and everyone is trying to make a living. The creative endeavour arose during online exchanges with research participants and friends, the re‐reading of fieldnotes, and the surfacing of poignant memories while growing up with a Venezuelan family twenty years ago. The plot around the butterfly coalesced with these personal memories and an emerging understanding of natural abundance, human, fragility, and metamorphosis in how Venezuelans make sense of loss and inequality. The storyline follows the life of Marianela, an upper middle‐class woman born and bred in Caracas, who ends up in a goldmine in the south of Venezuela with her three‐year daughter Alba. One day, at the Brazilian border, a blue butterfly warns her that her beloved caretaker passed away. To overcome this loss, Marianela intents to finally break away from subjugation.

Reduction of pathogens in greywater with biological and sustainable treatments selected through a multicriteria approach.

Non-potable reuse of greywater (GW) can represent a valid alternative to freshwater consumption, satisfying the Sustainable Development Goals promoted by United Nations. The Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) was applied to select the most suitable processes for the reduction of microbiological contamination in GW. A pilot plant, including horizontal flow constructed wetland (CW) and anaerobic filtration (AF) in parallel, best treatment options according to MCA results, was built to treat GW collected from a Venezuelan family. (i) The removal efficiency of microbiological parameters, and (ii) the turbidity as possible microbiological contamination indicator and possible influence factor of disinfection treatment, were investigated. Except for Escherichia coli (4.1 ± 0.9 log reduction with AF), CW achieved the best reductions yields for total coliforms, faecal coliforms, and Salmonella, respectively equal to 3.1 ± 0.5 log, 4.3 ± 0.5 log, and 2.9 ± 0.4 log. In accordance with Venezuelan legislation and WHO guidelines, GW treated with CW was found to be suitable for irrigation reuse for non-edible crops. However, the reduction of pathogens by CW should be considered as a preliminary and not complete disinfection treatment. To reuse GW, especially in the irrigation of edible crops, stronger disinfection treatment should be considered as a complement to the preliminary disinfection performed by CW, to avoid any kind of risk. No significant correlation was found for turbidity either as a possible predictor of microbiological contamination or as an influence on biological disinfection.

Identification of the new HLA-DPB1 allele,DPB1*162:01, in a Venezuelan family

The allele HLA-DPB1*162:01 differs from DPB1*01:01:02 by three nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions in exons 3 and 4.

IVIC syndrome Is caused by a c.2607delA mutation in the SALL4 locus

The IVIC syndrome described in 1980 in a large Venezuelan family, is an autosomal dominant condition characterized by upper limbs anomalies (radial ray defects, carpal bones fusion), extraocular motor disturbances, congenital bilateral non-progressive mixed hearing loss; other less consistent malformations include heart involvement, mild thrombocytopenia and leukocytosis (before age 50), shoulder girdle hypoplasia, imperforate anus, kidney malrotation or rectovaginal fistula. Since 2002, mutations in the SALL4 locus have been reported producing phenotypic features quite similar to those in IVIC syndrome; this gene was thus proposed as a candidate for the condition. A segregation analysis of four SNPs in exon 2 (c.1520T > G, c.1860A > G, c.2037C > T, and c.2392A > C) was carried out in 14 affected and in 15 normal family members. Haplotype T;A;C;A was found to always segregate with the disease. Sequencing the whole coding regions revealed one heterozygous base deletion in exon 3 (c.2607delA) causing a premature stop signal 44 codons downstream (p.Q869fsX44) which segregates with the phenotype, being absent in controls. The large number of affected individuals presumably carrying the same mutation (n = 26) with quite different degrees of involvement allowed a discussion about possible mechanisms for the SALL4 action. The finding of a SALL4 mutation in a family with such a wide pleiotropic spectrum proves that at least Okihiro, acro-renal-ocular and IVIC syndromes are allelic entities.

Fabry disease in a Venezuelan family

Fabry disease in a Venezuelan family

Localization of a Gene for Familial Patella Aplasia-Hypoplasia (PTLAH) to Chromosome 17q21–22

Patella aplasia-hypoplasia (PTLAH) is a rare genetic defect characterized by congenital absence or marked reduction of the patella. PTLAH can occur either as an isolated defect or in association with other malformations, and it characteristically occurs in the nail-patella syndrome and in some chromosome imbalances. We report the first evidence of linkage for isolated PTLAH in an extended Venezuelan family. After exclusion of the candidate chromosome regions where disorders associated with PTLAH have been mapped, a genomewide scan was performed that supported mapping of the disease locus within a region of 12 cM on chromosome 17q22. Two marker loci (D17S787 and D17S1604) typed from this region gave maximum LOD scores >3. Accordingly, multipoint analysis gave a maximum LOD score of 3.39, with a most likely location for the disease gene between D17S787 and D17S1604. Sequencing of the noggin gene, a candidate mapping between these markers, failed to reveal any mutation in affected subjects.

An Analysis of a Large Postlingually Deaf Family with Hereditary Non-syndromic Profound Hearing Loss

We initiated a clinical and genetic linkage study on members of a large Venezuelan family with hereditary hearing loss. A medical history and a physical examination were performed on 30 family members. Audiometry was carried out in 25 subjects, and in 2 additional children auditory brainstem responses were obtained. Additional testing (site-of-lesion, electronystagmography and computed tomography) was also obtained in a few subjects. DNA was extracted from blood samples from 25 family members. The type of deafness in this family is neurosensorial, non-syndromic and postlingual. The average age of onset of deafness is 7 years and there is a rapid progression leading to profound deafness. Deafness is possibly of cochlear origin and there is no associated vestibular pathology. Analysis of the pedigree discloses a maternal pattern of inheritance with a significant female predominance, compatible with a mutation of the mitochondrial DNA. The molecular DNA analysis for the known mitochondrial mutations are discussed.

The nasopalpebral lipoma-coloboma syndrome: a new autosomal dominant dysplasia-malformation syndrome with congenital nasopalpebral lipomas, eyelid colobomas, telecanthus, and maxillary hypoplasia.

We describe a new autosomal dominant dysplasia-malformation syndrome from eight affected individuals in three generations of a Venezuelan family. It is characterized by congenital symmetrical upper lid and nasopalpebral lipomas, bilateral symmetrical upper and lower palpebral colobomas located at the junction of the inner and middle thirds of the lids, telecanthus, and maxillary hypoplasia. Affected individuals have a broad forehead, window's peak, abnormal pattern of eyebrows and eyelashes, and maldevelopment of the lacrimal punctae. Interorbital distance is normal, but interpupillary distance is increased due to divergent strabismus originating from visual interference from inner canthal masses. Persistent epiphora, conjunctival hyperemia, and corneal (and less frequently lens) opacities are a secondary consequence of the defect of the lacrimal punctae and the inability to close the lids completely. The syndrome has complete penetrance and a rather narrow range of expressivity. The primary defect could involve a dysplasia of adipose tissue leading to nasopalpebral and upper lid lipomas during embryogenesis, with the rest of the malformations being secondary to interference of morphogenesis of the mid-upperface developmental field from the lipomatous hamartomas. Alternatively, a central rather than a peripheral mechanism of malformation might be considered, such as defective migration of neural crest cells.

An abnormal fibrinogen in a Venezuelan family

A family with a mild bleeding tendency in which affected individuals have an abnormal fibrinogen designated as fibrinogen Caracas, has been studied. It was recognized by a delay in the clotting time upon the addition of thrombin and Reptilase R to plasma with a normal fibrinogen concentration. The defect in fibrinogen appears to reside in a delayed monomers aggregation and an impairment in the cross-linking of the α chain, the latter not related to Factor XIII deficiency.

A new variant of human transferrin in a Venezuelan family.

THE most prolific of the hereditary variations among the human serum proteins is that of the iron-transport protein transferrin. The initial demonstration of genetically determined transferrin heterogeneity1 has been followed by numerous reports of additional variants, until at the present time thirteen transferrins have been described: B0 (ref. 2), B0–1 (ref. 3), B1 (ref. 4), B2 (ref. 5), B3 (ref. 6), C, D0 (ref. 2), D4 (ref. 7), DMontreal (ref. 8), DChi (ref. 6), D1 (ref 9), D2 (ref. 4), and D3 (ref. 2). Each of the molecular species of transferrin has been identified by its characteristic mobility in starch-gel electrophoresis. Transferrin C is common in all populations; variants of more rapid mobility than transferrin C have been named B, and slower-moving variants have been labelled D. Where convenient, subscripts have been chosen to define the relative electrophoretic mobilities of variants within the fast- and slow-moving categories. In certain cases, particular transferrins appear to be restricted to specific populations; thus, transferrin B0–1 occurs in 8 per cent of Navajo Indians, B2 in 1 per cent of Caucasians, DChi in 6 per cent of Chinese, and D1 in 10 per cent of American Negroes.