Universidad Iberoamericana

IntroductionUnderstanding surgical outcomes in diverse settings is crucial for safe delivery of healthcare to underserved communities. Insufficient research has been done analyzing postoperative complications in regions with limited access to healthcare resources.ObjectiveTo compare postoperative complications from tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies on global health trips to an underserved community to those of a tertiary academic medical center (TAMC).MethodsData was collected via phone survey with patients from 2 2023 surgical trips to Azua, in the Dominican Republic (DR), sponsored by a TAMC, including surgery type, postoperative healthcare visits, and postoperative complications. The same data was collected via retrospective chart review from patients at a TAMC in 2023. The surgeries included were tonsillectomy adenoidectomy (T&A), tonsillectomy (T), and adenoidectomy (A). A statistical analysis compared non-routine healthcare visits and postoperative complications between populations using the Fisher's exact test.ResultsIn the DR, 168 patients (mean age: 8 years) underwent T&A (n = 113), T (n = 34), and A (n = 21). At the TAMC, 520 patients (mean age: 7.8 years) underwent T&A (n = 288), T (n = 123), and A (n = 109). No patients from the DR reported postoperative bleeding within 2 weeks of surgery, compared to 23 patients from the TAMC (p < 0.001). There was no statistical difference in trouble swallowing and uncontrolled pain within 2 weeks between the populations (p = 0.673 and 0.465).ConclusionThe T&A procedures on global health trips to underserved communities were not associated with increased rates of life-threatening complications compared with a TAMC. Surgical trips can provide safe and effective otolaryngologic care to patients in underserved communities.

Soil moisture is a crucial indicator of the seasonal dynamics of storage and fluxes, as the key interface between the surface and atmosphere and the surface and subsurface. At the same time it is the primary ecohydrological water source. In an alpine environment, its seasonal fluctuations are largely governed by radiation via snow melt, evaporation, and transpiration in addition to precipitation arrival, storage, and runoff. Because of this interaction of fluxes, it offers a critical lens with which to examine catchment processes. Meanwhile, it is one of the most challenging water stores to monitor at relevant scales.In the Vallon de Nant, a 13.5 km2 catchment in Switzerland, over 7 years of in situ data (with intermittent gaps), we observe two distinct peaks, the first in March and the second in December, punctuated by two periods of low soil moisture, in mid-January and over the growing season from June to September. This is particularly surprising because the stream flow peak does not occur until 3 months later in June. This time lag has been observed in other alpine catchments and may primarily be an expression of the interplay of wetting and drying, however we might also be observing an artifact of the scale discrepancy between the point measurements of soil moisture and the catchment response of streamflow. This scale discrepancy can be framed as a threshold-connectivity problem demonstrating the functional roles of hillslope versus riparian catchment areas and their expansion and contraction according to seasonal vegetation activity. In this presentation, we will examine the seasonal dynamics of wetting and drying to highlight the compounding roles of topography, season and vegetation. We will further explore the implications for plant available water given anticipated changes in seasonal snow pack timing and duration.

Présages de bonne fortune et de la vitalité éternelle: représentations et traditions religieuses et séculaires dans la mythologie des cerfs au Tibet et en Himalaya. Cet article renvoie à la présentation que nous avons donnée en novembre 2022 au Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle dans le cadre du séminaire «Les relations humains-cerfs (Cervus) dans leurs expressions matérielles et symboliques» de l'unité mixte de recherche BioArch – BioArchéologie, Interactions Sociétés Environnements. Elle est issue du projet de recherche Birds and Deer in the Himalayas andTibet: from ancient Tibetan rituals and archeology to sustainable development (2022-2023) hébergé à l'université de Berne, Suisse. Ce projet cible l'étude des sources historiques et littéraires en langue tibétaine, aussi bien religieuses que laïques, complétée par les récits traditionnels fournis par des informateurs au Tibet et dans l'Himalaya ainsi que des narratifs de chasse à l'époque moderne. Ces sources tibétaines aident à cerner les croyances imputant au cerf et au daim musqué la capacité d'apporter la bonne fortune à ceux qui les voient et d'être synonymes de renouvellement, de vitalité et d'immortalité de par la repousse annuelle des bois du cerf et la croissance continue des canines des daims porte-musc. En complément des sources historiques et croyances, nous présentons ici des récits de chercheurs tibétains et d'informateurs Sherpa au Népal. Les illustrations montrent des représentations préhistoriques de cerfs en pétroglyphes et des objets archéologiques en or et en argent qui représentent des cerfs à l'époque de l'Empire tibétain, ainsi que des scènes de chasse figurées sur des cercueils peints de l'époque de l'Empire tibétain. Un résumé zoologique et éthologique des différentes espèces de cerfs de l'Himalaya et du Tibet est présenté en introduction afin que le lecteur puisse mieux comprendre la nature des liens entre les cerfs et les populations humaines.

Earth System Models of Intermediate Complexity (EMICs) are essential tools for investigating climate dynamics on millennial to orbital time scales, which are computationally prohibitive for high-resolution CMIP-class models. The computational efficiency of EMICs is primarily achieved by reduced spatial resolution of the atmosphere and ocean components. However, EMICs often couple ice-sheet and terrestrial vegetation components, which require much higher spatial resolution. The coupling of these components therefore remains a major challenge and often results in inadequate climatic forcing for these sub-modules, particularly regarding precipitation patterns. Generative machine learning, specifically diffusion models and their variants, has emerged as a powerful technique to bridge this resolution gap. Here, we present the integration of a consistency model-based approach to facilitate efficient, online downscaling of temperature and precipitation within the Bern3D EMIC with negligible computational overhead.To achieve this, the consistency model was trained on monthly ERA5 ensemble output to learn the mapping from the coarse Bern3D grid to high-resolution fields. This approach successfully reconstructs high-resolution spatial variability while maintaining inference speeds compatible with long model integration times, effectively avoiding additional runtime costs. This framework therefore allows for the representation of small-scale heterogeneity in surface boundary conditions which is critical for realistic ice sheet and vegetation dynamics. Ultimately, this approach opens new avenues to investigate complex climate-ice-vegetation feedback on orbital time scales, such as during the Last Glacial Cycle or the Mid-Pleistocene Transition.

We urgently need to understand how land-use intensification and anthropogenic climate change drive ecosystem decay and biodiversity loss. In temperate grasslands, intensive land-use typically reduces plant diversity but enhances productivity by favoring resource-acquisitive, fast-growing species. Previous studies suggested that more diverse communities harboring more slow-growing species should be more resistant to climatic stress. Yet, how land-use intensity mediates plant community responses—such as diversity, biomass, and stability—to increasingly frequent and severe climate extremes remains poorly understood. In this study, we integrate annual vegetation surveys, standardized land-use indices, and daily temperature and precipitation data from 150 grasslands in Germany (The Biodiversity Exploratories) with high-resolution reconstructions of daily historical climate variability since 1950. Land-use intensity was quantified through standardized indices of fertilization, mowing, and grazing levels, allowing us to link management regimes to multi-decadal patterns of climatic stress. We identify and quantify the frequency, duration, and intensity of multiple extreme events (e.g. heatwaves, droughts, cold spells) over the past 75 years and assess how the diversity of aboveground plants, their traits, and their biomass production respond to these climatic stressors under varying land-use intensities since 2008. Our reconstructions show a dramatic rise in severe drought occurrence, from an average of 0.20 months of severe drought per year over the 1990–2006 period to 3.19 months of severe drought months over 2008–2024 - a 1’495% increase in mean annual drought exposure. Over the latter period, aboveground biomass declined significantly (–8.3 ± 0.8 g m-2 yr⁻¹), whereas species richness increased (+0.41 ± 0.16 species yr⁻¹). Biomass losses were strongest in intensively managed grasslands (–9.8 ± 0.8 g m-2 yr⁻¹), suggesting that land-use intensification amplifies long-term biomass declines under increasingly dry conditions. Although intensively managed grasslands show lower plant species richness, they also showed the fastest gains in richness through time. Land-use categories had no detectable effect on the rates of plant biomass resistance or recovery from droughts. Our results highlight how increasingly frequent and severe droughts, in combination with intensive land-use, threaten the biomass production and stability of grassland ecosystems across Central Europe.

Hemolysin β-pore-forming toxins (βPFTs) are key virulence factors of Clostridium perfringens, associated with severe diseases in humans and animals. Yet, the mechanisms by which Clostridium βPFTs recognize and engage specific target cells remain poorly understood. Here, we identify the cellular receptor for C. perfringens necrotizing enteritis toxin F (NetF), a recently discovered toxin implicated in severe enteritis in dogs and foals. We show that NetF binds to the same receptor as anthrax toxin, namely ANTXR2. Using cryo-electron microscopy, we determined the structure of the oligomeric NetF pre-pore as well as the transmembrane pore, both alone and in complex with the extracellular domain of ANTXR2. Unlike anthrax toxin, which binds to the apical MIDAS motif of ANTXR2 - as does the natural ANTXR2 ligand collagen type VI - NetF engages the receptor laterally, spanning both the von Willebrand A and the Ig-like domains. This interaction positions the toxin near the membrane, facilitating contact with membrane lipids and promoting transmembrane pore formation. Our findings uncover key principles of hemolysin βPFT-receptor recognition and advance our understanding of how pathogenic bacteria use these toxins to breach host defenses.

The Bangladesh government took an important step towards preventing cervical cancer by initiating a widespread HPV vaccination campaign directed at girls aged 10 to 14. The campaign aims to reach 10 million girls in three phases. Assessing knowledge about HPV and cervical cancer and willingness to get vaccinated is essential for government success. This study examines Bangladeshi girls' knowledge about human papillomavirus (HPV), cervical cancer, and their willingness to receive the HPV vaccine, providing information needed to improve vaccination strategies and programs. We used a communitybased cross-sectional survey of 416 girls aged 10 to 15 years to assess their knowledge of cervical cancer, vaccination against HPV, and factors influencing their willingness to vaccinate. Parental consent was obtained from all participants before data collection, ensuring ethical compliance for the study. Logistic regression models and descriptive statistics were used to find significant predictors of vaccine uptake. The study's findings highlighted that awareness levels regarding cervical cancer and HPV vaccination were low among Bangladeshi girls. Among participants, only 23% identified HPV as the primary cause of cervical cancer. Overall, 45% of the girls expressed a willingness to receive the HPV vaccine. This willingness was significantly associated with discussions with their mothers (aOR = 6.64, 95% CI: 2.65-22.3, p < 0.001) and living in urban areas (aOR = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.04-0.32, p < 0.001). Participants who had heard about the HPV vaccination had 2.28 times the odds of being willing to receive the HPV vaccine (aOR: 2.28, 95% CI: 1.27-4.29, p = 0.007). Despite moderate willingness to vaccinate, substantial knowledge gaps remain among Bangladeshi girls. This study highlights the necessity for comprehensive education and awareness programs. These conversations with mothers and healthcare providers can significantly increase vaccine acceptance, emphasizing the critical role of targeted communication in the success of vaccination campaigns.

La producción científica es la forma de exponer el conocimiento resultante del trabajo intelectual a través de la investigación científica, que contribuya al desarrollo de la ciencia y mejora las condiciones de vida de las personas. El objetivo del estudio es conocer la producción académica y difusión científica, sus fortalezas y dificultades en kinesiología y fisioterapia de una universidad de gestión privada, en los años 2021 al 2024. Fue un estudio cuantitativo, de tipo descriptivo, retrospectivo, de muestreo no probabilístico, por conveniencia, se realizó una encuesta a 10 docentes y 86 estudiantes de la carrera que se vinculan a la investigación, por otro lado, se realizó el análisis documental de las producciones académicas científicas del 2021 al 2024. Entre los resultados se encuentran que la mayoría sigue la línea de investigación en promoción de la salud y kinefilaxia. Entre las fortalezas señaladas por los estudiantes, el 85% participó en proyectos de investigación o extensión, en cuanto a los docentes el 60% dispone de tiempo para la investigación. En cuanto a las debilidades, los estudiantes y docentes no forman parte de grupos de investigación, lo que representa el 86% y 80% respectivamente. En conclusión, se evidencia que predomina la producción académica científica relacionada a la promoción en salud, respecto a las fortalezas se encuentra la participación de los estudiantes en eventos científicos, la dedicación exclusiva de docentes en el acompañamiento de las investigaciones, entre las debilidades se observa que la mayoría de los estudiantes y docentes no pertenecen a grupos de investigación y es escasa la investigación interdisciplinaria.